The bar-tailed lark or bar-tailed desert lark is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae. Two other species, the rufous-tailed lark and the Cape clapper lark are both also sometimes referred to using the name bar-tailed lark. It is found from Morocco to Pakistan. Its natural habitat is hot deserts. This is in many places a common species, but elsewhere rather less common. It has a very wide distribution and faces no obvious threats, but surveys have shown that it is slowly decreasing in numbers. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of "least concern".
Region
North Africa, Arabian Peninsula, and Southwest Asia
Typical Environment
Occurs from the Atlantic coast of Morocco across the Sahara and Sahel fringes through Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula to southern Iran and Pakistan. It favors open hot deserts with sparse vegetation, including sand dunes, stony hamadas, and gravel flats. It frequents wadis, salt pans, and margins of low shrubs where seeds and invertebrates are more abundant. The species is patchy where suitable substrate is limited but can be locally common in extensive desert.
Altitude Range
Sea level to 2000 m
Climate Zone
Arid
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 2/5
A sandy-colored desert specialist, the bar-tailed lark blends almost perfectly with dunes and gravel plains. Its namesake dark subterminal tail band shows clearly in flight. It often runs rather than flies, seeking shade during the hottest hours and nesting in a simple ground scrape lined with small stones or plant material.
Eggs of Ammomanes cincturus arenicolor MHNT
Temperament
wary and unobtrusive
Flight Pattern
low, bounding flight with short rapid wingbeats; brief fluttering song-flights
Social Behavior
Usually seen singly, in pairs, or small family groups, especially outside the breeding season. Nests on the ground in a shallow scrape, often sheltered by a stone or small shrub, laying 2–3 eggs. Pairs are territorial during breeding and rely on camouflage and stillness to avoid predators.
Migratory Pattern
Resident
Song Description
A soft, tinkling series of trills and short phrases, often delivered during a brief display flight. Contact calls are thin, high chips that carry over open desert.
Plumage
Fine, sandy-buff plumage with subtle mottling and light streaking on the upperparts and a cleaner, paler underside. Feathers are short and tight, giving a smooth, neat appearance that matches desert substrates.
Diet
Takes small seeds and green plant material supplemented by insects such as beetles, ants, and termites. Forages by walking and picking items from the ground, probing loose sand or debris. After rains it shifts more to invertebrates when they are abundant.
Preferred Environment
Open sandy or gravelly deserts with scattered low shrubs and along wadis where food concentrates. Often feeds near microhabitats that trap seeds, such as the lee of stones and tussocks.
