The plains lark (''Corypha kabalii'') 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 in Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and northwest Zambia. It was formerly treated as a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of the

rufous-naped lark The rufous-naped lark (''Corypha africana'') or rufous-naped bush lark is a widespread and conspicuous species of Alaudidae, lark in the lightly wooded grasslands, open savannas and farmlands of the Afrotropical realm, Afrotropics. Males attract ...

Taxonomy

The plains lark was

formally described A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

in 1943 by the English ornithologist Charles M.N. White based on a specimen collected near Balovale (now the town of

Zambezi The Zambezi (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than half of t ...

) in northwest Zambia near the border with Angola. He considered it to be a

of the

and coined the

trinomial name In biology, trinomial nomenclature is the system of names for taxa below the rank of species. These names have three parts. The usage is different in zoology and botany. In zoology In zoological nomenclature, a trinomen (), trinominal name, or t ...

''Mirafra africana kabalii''. He chose the specific epithet to honour a local collector and hunter Kabali Muzeya. The plains lark is now treated as a separate species and placed in the genus ''

Corypha ''Corypha'' or the gebang palm, buri palm or talipot palm is a genus of palms (family Arecaceae), native to India, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea and northeastern Australia (Cape York Peninsula, Queensland). They are fan pa ...

''. This is based on the results of two

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

studies by a team of ornithologists led by

Per Alström ''Per'' Johan Alström (born 9 April 1961) is a Swedish Professor of ornithology. He does research in Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, systematics, and evolution, with birds in Asia as a specialty. Alström works at the Department of Ecology and Genet ...

that were published in 2023 and 2024. Three subspecies are recognised: * ''C. k. malbranti'' ( Chapin, 1946) – Gabon to south DR Congo * ''C. k. kabalii'' (White, CMN, 1943) – northeast Angola and northwest Zambia * ''C. k. irwini'' (da Rosa Pinto, 1968) – southeast Angola (previously synonymized with ''C. africana pallida'')

References

Corypha (bird) Birds of Central Africa Birds described in 1943 {{Alaudidae-stub