Voice
A sparrow-like 'tchweerp', uttered in flight. Song is a sustained jumble of melodious phrases, given during display flight. Will also mimic other birds' songs.
Red-capped Lark (Calandrella cinerea) [XC584676]
by Dries Van de Loock from Chikuni, Bangweulu, Zambia (flight call)
Red-capped Lark (Calandrella cinerea) [XC509961]
by Frank Lambert from Engikaret Lark plains, Arusha, Tanzania (song)
Subspecies
Red-capped Lark (Calandrella cinerea) and Blanford's Lark (Calandrella blanfordi) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) have been lumped into Calandrella cinerea following Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993).
May form a superspecies with Greater Short-toed Lark (Calandrella brachydactyla), Blanford's Lark (Calandrella blanfordi), Erlanger's Lark (Calandrella erlangeri) and Hume's Lark (Calandrella acutirostris). Often considered conspecific with first three (especially Blanford's Lark (Calandrella blanfordi) and Erlanger's Lark (Calandrella erlangeri)). Geographical variation among many contiguous subspecies limited and broadly clinal. Further study may demonstrate that several taxa are not sustainable. Additional named subspecies are ongumaensis (northern Namibia), synonymized with spleniata, witputzi (southern Namibia), included in nominate, and vagilans (eastern Botswana and north-eastern South Africa), included in niveni; also, description of anderssoni (central Namibia) apparently based on worn non-breeding specimen of nominate.
The following 8 subspecies are recognised:
saturatior Reichenow, 1904 - Nigeria (Jos Plateau), and DRCongo east to Uganda and western and south-western Tanzania, south to Angola (except north-western and south), northern Zambia and Malawi.
williamsi Clancey, 1952 - Southern Kenya and northern Tanzania.
spleniata (Strickland, 1853) - South-western Angola and north-western Namibia.
fulvida Clancey, 1978 - Southern Angola, southern Zambia and Zimbabwe.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet