Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark

The black-crowned sparrow-lark is a small lark of dry savanna, 11.5–12.5 cm long. The adult male has a bold pied head with a mainly black head, white forehead and white cheek patches, pale greyish-brown upperparts, and black underparts and underwings that contrast with a white patch at the sides of the breast. It is found across northern Africa from Mauritania through the Middle East to north-western India, including the Cape Verde archipelago, the Sahel and the Arabian Peninsula, into Pakistan and India (Wikipedia, general species account).

The male's song is quite variable, usually a short series of simple, sweet notes sung in the flight display or from a low perch. In the midday heat these birds reduce water loss by staying in the shade and have even been recorded sheltering in the burrows of large lizards. Both sexes incubate the two to three eggs for about 11 to 12 days, the young are fed predominantly insects and fledge at around 21 or 22 days, reaching maturity at about a year. SoIB 2023 lists it as a resident of grassland that eats plants and seeds, without a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).