The red-winged lark (''Corypha hypermetra'') 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 eastern Africa. It was formerly treated as

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

with the

Kidepo lark The Kidepo lark (''Corypha kidepoensis'') is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae found in South Sudan and Uganda. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the red-winged lark. Taxonomy The Kidepo lark was formally described in 1940 by t ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The red-winged larkx was formerly placed in the genus ''

Mirafra ''Mirafra'' is a genus of lark in the family Alaudidae. Some ''Mirafra'' species are called "larks", while others are called "bush larks". They are all found in Africa except for the singing bush lark that is found through South Asia to Australi ...

''. It is one of several species that were moved to the resurrected 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 ...

'' based on the results of a large molecular genetic study by the Swedish ornithologist

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 ...

and collaborators that was published in 2023. The red-winged lark is taken to form a

species complex In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

with the

allopatric Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

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 ...

, and perhaps with the

Somali lark The Somali lark (''Corypha somalica'') is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae endemic to Somalia. Ash's lark is now considered to be a subspecies. Taxonomy The Somali lark was formally described in 1903 by the British ornithologist Harr ...

. The name "red-winged lark" is sometimes used as an alternate name for the Indian bush lark. The alternate names red-winged bush lark and rufous-winged bush lark may also be used to describe the Indian bush lark or the Bengal bush lark respectively.

Subspecies

Two

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 ...

are recognized: * ''C. h. gallarum'' ( Hartert, EJO, 1907) – Ethiopia * ''C. h. hypermetra'' (

Reichenow Anton Reichenow (1 August 1847 in Charlottenburg – 6 July 1941 in Hamburg) was a German ornithologist and herpetologist. Reichenow was the son-in-law of Jean Cabanis, and worked at the Natural History Museum of Berlin from 1874 to 1921. He was ...

, 1879) – south Somalia to northeast Tanzania This species and the

(''Corypha kidepoensis'') were formerly treated as

. The Kidepo lark was elevated to species status based on results of a comprehensive integrated study of the genus ''

'' that was published in 2024.

Description

It is a larger version of the

, with a more robust bill and longer tail, but their morphological and vocal features do not intergrade where they occur together.

Distribution and habitat

It has a patchy but quite extensive

range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...

in equatorial eastern Africa. It occurs within Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, and its estimated global extent of occurrence is 660,000 km². Its total population has yet to be quantified, but is believed to be large. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

in tropical to subtropical dry, open, lowland.

References

red-winged lark The red-winged lark (''Corypha hypermetra'') is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae found in eastern Africa. It was formerly treated as conspecific with the Kidepo lark. Taxonomy and systematics The red-winged larkx was formerly placed in ...

Birds of East Africa

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Alaudidae-stub