''Melanocorypha'' is a small genus of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s in the

lark Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark occ ...

family. The current genus name, ''Melanocorypha'' is from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''melas'', "black", and ''koruphos'' a term used by ancient writer for a now unknown bird, but here confused with ''korudos'', "lark".

Taxonomy and systematics

Established by

Friedrich Boie Friedrich Boie (4 June 1789 – 3 March 1870) was a German entomologist, herpetologist, ornithologist, and lawyer.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Universi ...

in 1828, the genus ''Melanocorypha'' has five extant and at least three extinct species.

Extant species

There are five species recognized in the genus:

Extinct species

There is at least three fossil species included in this genus: * †'' Melanocorypha serdicensis'' (late Miocene from Hrabarsko, Bulgaria)Boev, Z. 2012. Neogene Larks (Aves: Alaudidae (Vigors, 1825)) from Bulgaria - Acta zoologica bulgarica, 64 (3), 2012: 295-318. * †'' Melanocorypha donchevi'' (late Pliocene from Varshets, Bulgaria) * †'' Melanocorypha minor'' (Pliocene of Beremend, Hungary)

Former species

Formerly, some authorities classified the following species as belonging to the genus ''Melanocorypha'': * Thick-billed lark (as ''Melanocorypha clot-bey'') *

Bar-tailed lark The bar-tailed lark or bar-tailed desert lark (''Ammomanes cinctura'') is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae. Two other species, the rufous-tailed lark and the Cape clapper lark are both also sometimes referred to using the name bar-tai ...

(as ''Melanocorypha cinctura'') *

White-winged lark The white-winged lark (''Alauda leucoptera'') is a species of lark found from southern Ukraine through Kazakhstan to south-central Russia. It is partially bird migration, migratory, with birds tending to move south in winter. The southernmost bir ...

(as ''Melanocorypha leucoptera'' or ''Melanocorypha sibirica'')

Description

''Melanocorypha'' larks are large, robust birds, 16.5–20 cm long with strong thick bills. Some have the typically undistinguished lark plumage, mainly streaked greyish-brown above and white below, but the,

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

and

white-winged lark The white-winged lark (''Alauda leucoptera'') is a species of lark found from southern Ukraine through Kazakhstan to south-central Russia. It is partially bird migration, migratory, with birds tending to move south in winter. The southernmost bir ...

s have distinctive male plumages. Several species have large black patches on the breast sides. In flight they show broad wings and a shortish tail. The songs of most species are like that of the

skylark ''Alauda'' is a genus of larks found across much of Europe, Asia and in the mountains of north Africa, and one of the species (the Raso lark) endemic to the islet of Raso in the Cape Verde Islands Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially ...

Distribution and habitat

The members of ''Melanocorypha'' occur mainly in temperate Asia from Turkey through central Asia to China, but the

calandra lark The calandra lark (''Melanocorypha calandra'') or European calandra-lark breeds in warm temperate countries around the Mediterranean and eastwards through Turkey into northern Iran and southern Russia. It is replaced further east by its relative ...

also has an extensive European distribution around the Mediterranean. These larks are mostly partially migratory, moving relatively short distances from the coldest parts of their ranges. Several species are very rare vagrants to western Europe. These are birds of open cultivation,

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropica ...

or semi-desert. They nest on the ground and the young are

precocial Precocial species in birds and mammals are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. They are normally nidifugous, meaning that they leave the nest shortly after birth or hatching. Altricial ...

. The food is seeds supplemented with insects especially in the breeding season. They are gregarious outside the breeding season.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q310253 Bird genera Birds of Eurasia Taxa named by Friedrich Boie