Gray's lark (''Ammomanopsis grayi'') is a species of

lark Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark oc ...

in the family

Alaudidae Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark oc ...

. It is found in south-western Africa in its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

of hot deserts.

Taxonomy and systematics

Gray's lark was originally described as a species within the genus ''

Alauda ''Alauda'' is a genus of larks found across much of Europe, Asia and in the mountains of north Africa, and one of the species (the Raso lark) endemic to the islet of Raso in the Cape Verde Islands. Further, at least two additional species are ...

''. It was then placed in the sister genus ''

Ammomanes ''Ammomanes'' is a genus of lark in the family Alaudidae Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, ...

'' until re-classified in 2009 by the IOC into the

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

genus ''Ammomanopsis''. Some authorities still consider the species as ''Ammomanes grayi''. Other names for Gray's lark include Gray's desert lark and Gray's sand lark.

Subspecies

Two subspecies are recognized: * ''A. g. hoeschi'' - ( Niethammer, 1955): Found in north-western Namibia and south-western Angola * ''A. g. grayi'' - ( Wahlberg, 1855): Found in west-central and south-western Namibia

References

Gray's lark Birds of Southern Africa Gray's lark Gray's lark Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Alaudidae-stub