Back in March 2011 I wrote on this blog about distinguishing between Thekla and Crested Lark (scroll through and have a look). For some reason the clarity of the table was poor and for some reason I don't seem able to replace it so I've revisited it and have posted a more legible version here. I've made some changes and improved the layout, but it's substantially the same as my earlier effort. If I was doing it again from scratch I'd probably omit the 'weighting' which I did for a bit of fun, but am now uncertain whether it really helps. I'd probably stress a little more strongly that birds found over c1,000m are very likely to be Thekla whilst those on agricultural land are likely to be Crested. I'd also add that whilst some Cresteds have an obviously long and curved bill others aren't quite so striking (and they're not all young birds as I've seen them at the wrong time of the year). Although I happily identify most 'Crested/Thekla Larks' I still see some that make me scratch my head and think are they hybrids?
RSS Feed
