Crested Lark (Galerida) [XC689198]
by Romuald Mikusek from Gmina G\u0142og\u00f3w (near G\u0142og\u00f3w), Powiat g\u0142ogowski, Dolno\u015bl\u0105skie, Spain (flight call)
Crested Lark (Galerida cristata) [XC181837]
by Francesco Sottile from Kazminwody, Saryagash District, South Kazakhstan, Morocco (song)
Subspecies
Subspecific taxonomy extremely complex, with over 60 subspecies described across species' huge range, seemingly a result of its mostly sedentary habits, and strong correlation of plumage ground colour and intensity of streaking with environmental factors (mainly soil colour, perhaps also general conditions of aridity and amount of sunshine). Even within range of a given subspecies, highly localized populations showing quite different colour, related to aberrantly coloured local soils, occur (e.g. within range of olive-grey apuliae in southern Italy, ash-grey birds from eastern Calabria named as "heraelaciniae"); also well-marked variation, tending to be clinal, in body size, wing length and, especially, bill length. In general, differences among subspecies slight and often noticeable only if large series of skins in fresh plumage compared, as many taxa described on basis of small number of specimes, sometimes variably abraded; intergradation also evident, both in Palearctic and in Afrotropics. Birds from north-western Spain sometimes attributed to nominate subspecies. Several attempts at "lumping" undertaken, in some cases reducing number of subspecies to just 20, but results seem often too arbitrary, and perhaps preferable to recognize described subspecies unless very compelling reasons exist to merge them with others. Geographical areas of especial difficulty, where several subspecies meet and establishment of neat frontiers among them appears impossible, include Morocco, Nile Valley, Near East and Asia Minor. Thorough review needed. Besides listed subspecies, others described include madaraszi from southern Croatia (Dalmatia) and muehlii from Greece, both included in meridionalis; moltschanowi from Crimea, in tenuirostris; ioniae from western Asia Minor (Izmir region), magdae from southern Caspian region and submagna from Transcaspia, all in caucasica; weigoldi and ankarae from Asia Minor, in subtaurica; retrusa from northern China (Gansu) and alaschanica from Inner Mongolia (Alxa), in magna; vamberyi from Kara Kum Desert (Turkmenistan), in iwanowi; gafsae, whitakeri and deprimozi from Tunisia, all in arenicola; deltae from Nile Delta, in nigricans; imami from Yemen and thomsi from northern Oman (Muscat), in tardinata; moeritica from northern Egypt (Faiyum), in maculata; caroli from Egypt, nubica from Ethiopia and eritreae from Eritrea, all in altirostris; and courtoti from western Chad and zalingei from western Sudan, both in alexanderi.
The following 37 subspecies are recognised:
cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) - Central Europe from Denmark and extreme southern Sweden east to Belarus, south to France, northern Italy, northern former Yugoslavia, northern Hungary and northern Ukraine.
pallida Brehm, CL, 1858 - Iberian Peninsula.
neumanni Hilgert, 1907 - Western Italy (Toscana south to Rome area).
apuliae von Jordans, 1935 - Southern peninsular Italy and Sicily.
tenuirostris Brehm, CL, 1858 - Eastern Hungary and Romania east to southern Russia (south to northern Caucasus region) and western Kazakhstan.
meridionalis Brehm, CL, 1841 - Southern formerYugoslavia south to Greece (including Ionian Is and Crete) and western Turkey.
caucasica Taczanowski, 1888 - Eastern Aegean Is (Samothraki south to Samos), northern Turkey, southern Caucasus and western Transcaucasia.
subtaurica (Kollibay, 1912) - Central Turkey east to southern Transcaucasia, north-western Iran and western Turkmenistan, south to northern and eastern Iraq.
cypriaca Bianchi, 1907 - Rhodes, Karpathos and Cyprus.
zion Meinertzhagen, R, 1920 - Southern Turkey, Syria, eastern Lebanon and eastern Israel (south to Jerusalem).
cinnamomina Hartert, 1904 - Western Lebanon (southern from Beirut) and north-western Israel (Mt Carmel and Haifa).
magna Hume, 1871 - Southern Kazakhstan east to southern Mongolia and northern China (Xinjiang east to northern Gansu and Inner Mongolia).
leautungensis (Swinhoe, 1861) - Manchuria and north-eastern China.
coreensis Taczanowski, 1888 - Korea.
iwanowi Loudon and Zarudny, 1903 - Central Turkmenistan and central and southern Iran east to southern Tadjikistan, Afghanistan and north-western Pakistan.
kleinschmidti Erlanger, 1899 - North-western Morocco (east to Rif Mts, south to Middle Atlas).
riggenbachi Hartert, 1902 - Western Morocco (Casablanca south to Sous Valley).
carthaginis Kleinschmidt, O & Hilgert, 1905 - Coastal region from north-eastern Morocco east to northern Tunisia (east to Sousse).
randoni Loche, 1860 - Hauts Plateaux of eastern Morocco (east of upper R Moulouya) and north-western Algeria.
macrorhyncha Tristram, 1859 - Southern Morocco and north-western Algeria south of Atlas Saharien (east to Laghouat and Ghardaia) south to west-central Mauritania (Atar area). Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Maghreb Lark (Galerida macrorhyncha).
arenicola Tristram, 1859 - North-eastern Algerian Sahara (eastern from Biskra and Ouargla), southern Tunisia (south of Gafsa and Sfax) and north-western Libya (Tripolitania).
festae Hartert, 1922 - Coastal north-eastern Libya (Benghazi east to Tubruq).
brachyura Tristram, 1865 - North-eastern Libya (inland Cyrenaica), coastal northern Egypt (east to Alexandria), and from northern Sinai Peninsula and southern Israel (Negev and Dead Sea region) east to southern Iraq and northern Saudi Arabia.
alexanderi Neumann, 1908 - Northern Nigeria east to western Sudan, and north-eastern Central African Republic.
isabellina Bonaparte, 1850 - Central Sudan (Kordofan east to R Nile).
altirostris Brehm, CL, 1855 - Eastern Sudan (eastern from Nile Valley) and Eritrea.
somaliensis Reichenow, 1907 - Northern Somalia, southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya.
tardinata Hartert, 1904 - Southern (perhaps also west) Arabia.
chendoola (Franklin, 1831) - Southern Kashmir foothills south to eastern Pakistan, western and northern India (east to Bihar) and southern Nepal.
Similar Species
In the west of its range with Thekla's Lark (Galerida theklae) and in western India with Malabar Lark (Galerida malabarica).
References
See References.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet