Oriental Skylark (Alauda gulgula) [XC782483]
by Thet Zaw Naing from Emek HaMayanot (near Tirat Zvi), Yizrael, North District, Israel (call)
Oriental Skylark (Alauda gulgula) [XC654149]
by David Darrell-Lambert from Wamm Farms,Dibba Al Fujairah, Fujairah, United Arab Emirates (flight call)
Subspecies
May form a superspecies with Sky Lark (Alauda arvensis), and has been considered conspecific. Subspecies japonica of that species sometimes included within present species owing to similarities in plumage and structure. Geographical variation to some extent clinal, size decreasing from north to south. Other described subspecies are punjaubi (from Pakistan and north-western India) and transcaspia (Turkmenistan), merged with inconspicua; dharmakumarsinhjii (Gujarat, in west-central India), australis (south-western India) and herberti (central and south-eastern Thailand east to southern Vietnam), included in nominate; sala (Hainan), included in coelivox; and wolfei (Luzon, in Philippines), merged with wattersi.
The following 13 subspecies are recognised:
inconspicua Severtsov, 1873 - Southern Kazakhstan, southern Uzbekistan, eastern Turkmenistan and eastern Iran east to western and south-western Tadjikistan, Pakistan and north-western India.
lhamarum Meinertzhagen, R & Meinertzhagen, A, 1926 - South-western Pamir, extreme north-eastern Afghanistan and western Himalayas (north-eastern Pakistan south to northern Punjab, east to Nepal).
gulgula Franklin, 1831 - North-central and north-eastern India south to Sri Lanka and east to Indochina.
inopinata Bianchi, 1905 - Much of Tibetan Plateau, eastern Qinghai, Gansu (except most north-west) and extreme south-western Inner Mongolia.
vernayi Mayr, 1941 - Eastern Himalayas and neighbouring parts of China (south-eastern Xizang, western Yunnan).
weigoldi Hartert, 1922 - Central and eastern China (south-eastern Gansu and southern Shaanxi south to southern and eastern Sichuan, and eastern along Yangtse Valley).
dharmakumarsinhjii Abdulali, 1976 - West-central India.
coelivox Swinhoe, 1859 - South-eastern and southern China (including Hainan I) and northern Vietnam.
australis Brooks, WE, 1873 - South-western India.
wattersi Swinhoe, 1871 - Taiwan and Philippines.
sala Swinhoe, 1870 - Hainan I. (off south-eastern China).
herberti Hartert, 1923 - Central and south-eastern Thailand to southern Vietnam.