Birds Guide

Eremophila
Shore Lark
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia   Phylum: Chordata   Class: Aves   Order: Passeriformes   Family: Alaudidae   Genus: Eremophila Boie, 1828
Species
E. bilopha E. alpestris

The bird genus Eremophila comprises the two horned larks:

• the Shore Lark, Eremophila alpestris, known in North America as the Horned Lark,
• and Temminck's Lark, or Temminck's Horned Lark, Eremophila bilopha.

These are larks of open country which nest is on the ground. The migratory Shore Lark breeds across much of the northern regions of North America, Europe and Asia and in the mountains of Europe. Temminck’s Lark is mainly a resident breeding species across much of north Africa, through northern Arabia to western Iraq.

Unlike most other larks, these are distinctive looking species with striking head and face patterns, black and white in Temminck’s Lark and black and yellow in most Shore Larks. The summer males of both species have black "horns", which give these larks their alternative names.