Eurasian skylark
The Eurasian skylark (Alauda arvensis) is a passerine bird in the lark family, Alaudidae. It is a widespread species found across Europe and the Palearctic with introduced populations in Australia, New Zealand and on the Hawaiian Islands. It is a bird of open farmland and heath, known for the song of the male, which is delivered in hovering flight from heights of . The sexes are alike. It is streaked greyish-brown above and on the breast and has a buff-white belly. The female Eurasian skylark builds an open nest in a shallow depression on open ground well away from trees, bushes and hedges. She lays three to five eggs which she incubates for around 11 days. The chicks are fed by both parents but leave the nest after eight to ten days, well before they can fly. They scatter and hide in the vegetation but continue to be fed by the parents until they can fly at 18 to 20 days of age. Nests are subject to high predation rates by larger birds and small mammals. The parents can have several broods in a single season. Taxonomy and systematics The Eurasian skylark was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae and retains its original binomial name of Alauda arvensis. It is one of the four species placed in the genus Alauda. The genus name is from the Latin alauda, "lark". Pliny thought the word was originally of Celtic origin. The specific arvensis is also Latin, and means "of the field". The results of a molecular phylogenetic study of the lark family Alaudidae published in 2013 suggested that Eurasian skylark is most closely related to the Oriental skylark Alauda gulgula. Formerly, many authorities considered the Japanese skylark as a separate species. It is now usually considered a subspecies of the Eurasian skylark. Alternate names for the Eurasian skylark include northern skylark and sky lark. Subspecies Eleven subspecies are recognized: A. a. arvensis Linnaeus, 1758 – northern, western and central Europe A. a. sierrae Weigold, 1913 – Portugal, central and southern Spain A. a. harterti Whitaker, 1904 – north-western Africa A. a. cantarella Bonaparte, 1850 – southern Europe from north-eastern Spain to Turkey and the Caucasus A. a. armenica Bogdanov, 1879 – south-eastern Turkey to Iran A. a. dulcivox Hume, 1872 – south-eastern European Russia and western Siberia to north-western China and south-western Mongolia A. a. kiborti Zaliesski, 1917 – southern Siberia, northern and eastern Mongolia and north-eastern China A. a. intermedia R. Swinhoe, 1863 – north-central Siberia to north-eastern China and Korea A. a. pekinensis Swinhoe, 1863 – north-eastern Siberia, Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kuril Islands A. a. lonnbergi Hachisuka, 1926 – northern Sakhalin Island A. a. japonica Temminck & Schlegel, 1848 – southern Sakhalin Island, southern Kuril Island, Japan and the Ryukyu Islands: the Japanese skylark Some authorities recognise the subspecies A. a. scotia Tschusi, 1903 and A. a. guillelmi Witherby, 1921. In the above list scotia is included in