Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark (Eremopterix nigriceps) [XC165772]
by Marcin So\u0142owiej from Hoele near Sheq R., Yemen (song)
Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark (Eremopterix nigriceps) [XC293936]
by Phil Gregory from Desert National Park, Thar Desert, near Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India (call)
Subspecies
Relationships obscure. Sometimes placed in a superspecies with Grey-backed Sparrow-Lark (Eremopterix verticalis), Chestnut-headed Sparrow-Lark (Eremopterix signatus) and Fischer's Sparrow-Lark (Eremopterix leucopareia), but has also been considered to form a superspecies with Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Lark (Eremopterix leucotis) on basis of male plumage patterns. Alternatively, often regarded as closest to Ashy-crowned Sparrow-Lark (Eremopterix griseus). Geographical variation largely clinal, size increasing from west to east. Birds from Socotra described as subspecies forbeswatsoni, but considered indistinguishable from melanauchen.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
nigriceps (Gould, 1839) - Cape Verde Is.
albifrons (Sundevall, 1850) - Mauritania and Senegal east to Sudan (east to R Nile).
melanauchen (Cabanis, 1851) - Eastern Sudan east to extreme southern Iraq, Kuwait and central and southern Arabian Peninsula, and south to Somalia and Socotra.
affinis (Blyth, 1867) - South-eastern Iran east to Pakistan and north-western India.