Somali short-toed lark

The Somali short-toed lark (Alaudala somalica) is a small passerine bird of the lark family found in eastern and north-eastern Africa.

The habitat of the Somali short-toed lark is subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland.

Taxonomy

The Somali short-toed lark was formally described in 1895 by the English ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe based on a specimen collected on the Haud plateau of Somalia by the American explorer Arthur Donaldson Smith. Sharpe coined the binomial name Alaudala somalica. The Somali short-toed lark was formerly sometimes treated as a subspecies of the Mediterranean short-toed lark (Alaudala rufescens). The Athi short-toed lark was formerly treated as a subspecies.

Four subspecies are recognised:

• A. s. perconfusa (White, CMN, 1960) – northwest Somalia
• A. s. somalica Sharpe, 1895 – east Ethiopia and north Somalia
• A. s. megaensis (Benson, 1946) – south Ethiopia to central Kenya
• A. s. athensis Sharpe, 1900 - southern Kenya and northern Tanzania

References