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The Mongolian lark (''Melanocorypha mongolica'') is a species of
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 ...
in the family Alaudidae
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 ...
found from southern Russia and Mongolia to central China.
The Mongolian lark is known for its elaborate singing and even well into adulthood, is able to learn new songs. While female Mongolian larks don’t sing, they have noteworthy song control nuclei with strong connectivity. Male Mongolian larks have large song bouts and song phrases that allow them to have extremely large song control nuclei.
It is an indicator species
A bioindicator is any species (an indicator species) or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment. The most common indicator species are animals. For example, copepods and other sma ...
for avian biodiversity
Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...
in the Mongolian steppes.
It is most often seen alone.
Its predators include the Saker Falcon
The saker falcon (Falco cherrug) is a large falcon species. It breeds from Central Europe eastwards across the Palearctic to Manchuria. It is a partial migrant, which means that some part of the population is migratory, some part is not. In Eur ...
.
Taxonomy and systematics
The black lark was originally placed in the genus ''Alauda
''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. Further, at least two additional species a ...
''. Alternate names for the black lark include Mongolian sand-lark and Mongolian skylark.
Description
Its head is pale brown, with a red crown. Its upper part is reddish-brown, and its lower part is yellowish-white.Nesting
On average, it lays clutches of 3.3 eggs and incubates them for 13 days. They remain nestlings for 10 days. About half of its eggs tend to survive.
References
Mongolian lark Birds of Mongolia Birds of North China Mongolian lark Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Alaudidae-stub