Aral region, June (1 Viewer)

[sandrinhalee]

Are the two birds in the one pic just female house sparrows? That's what they look like, but I'm bewildered because I didn't see a single male around.

And what's this other chap? crested lark?

I hope y'all don't mind my influx of Kazakhstan birds -- going through my pics slowly.

 

[lou salomon]

the first 2 pics show a calandrella lark species, i guess it is lesser short-toed but a bit hard if you don't see the wingtips. do you have one more lateral pic of it? 3rd are two juvenile sparrows, presumablly house sparrows but i'm not sure if there could be another contender (like spanish sparrow).

 

[Gladiator96]

I think the lark is a lesser short-toed lark but I stand to be corrected

 

[lou salomon]

i wonder if those are juvenile saxaul sparrows...pale flash in secondaries

 

[MJB]

i wonder if those are juvenile saxaul sparrows...pale flash in secondaries

Just about at the western extent of their Kazakhstan distribution east of the former Aral Sea, Lou, so it is possible...
MJB

 

[sandrinhalee]

Ok, I'll just upload the lot of the pics I have of larks in the area. I wonder now if they are various kinds of larks since they look so different in the pictures. One of them is really dark.

Also, I wonder why lesser short-toed lark isn't listed in the Birds of Central Asia guidebook.

Thanks for all the help! Have another batch to upload in a bit.

 

[sandrinhalee]

More larks

 

[sandrinhalee]

Last one

 

[sandrinhalee]

aaaaaand more of the sparrows, if they give more insight.

 

[sandrinhalee]

The one sparrow on the left has such a distinctive white neck line, like a tree sparrow. I don't know what to do with that.

 

[lou salomon]

the forelast pic shows an adult female saxaul sparrow so i guess the juveniles could well be saxaul sparrows too.
the 4th pic in your pic might show a juvenile black lark, the others all seem to be lesser short-toed, including juveniles. but these are hard.

 

[dwatsonbirder]

Pic 1 post 6 - I wonder if this may show a Horned lark of some description? The tail pattern matches, and there is a hint of a dark markings along the supercillium and below the eye on the left hand bird.

 

[MJB]

Also, I wonder why lesser short-toed lark isn't listed in the Birds of Central Asia guidebook.

It may be because the identity, relationships and distributions of populations were less than clear; also some taxa were mis-attributed, if we go by the revisions of Alström et al 2013 & Stervander et al 2016,both clarifying many aspects, but after Ayé et al 2012.

Similar taxa likely present in the Aral region, in post-revision proposed taxonomy, are: Greater Short-toed Lark Calandrella brachydactyla longipennis, Hume's Short-toed Lark Calandrella acutirostris acutirostris (east of Aral, mostly), Lesser Short-toed Lark Alaudala rufescens aharoni (including niethammeri and Asian Short-toed Lark Alaudala cheleensis leucophaea (rare resident in and W of Syrdarya).

Because distributions remain poorly-known, other taxa may also be present. Note that previous Russian taxonomy (including unilateral adoption of some English names which in the West have been used for more distant taxa) may yet provide some clarity or even cloud the issue.
MJB


Alström, P, KN Barnes, U Olsson, FK Barker, P Bloomer, AA Khan, MA Quresh, A Guillaumet, P-A Crochet and PG Ryan. 2013. Multilocus phylogeny of the avian family Alaudidae (larks) reveals complex morphological evolution, non-monophyletic genera and hidden species diversity. Mol. Phyl. & Evol. 69(3): 1043-1056.

Ayé, R, M Schweizer and T Roth. 2012. The Birds of Central Asia. Helm. London. UK.

Stervander, M, P Alström, U Olsson, U Ottosson, B Hansson and S Bensch. 2016. Multiple instances of paraphyletic species and cryptic taxa revealed by mitochondrial and nuclear RAD data for Calandrella larks (Aves: Alaudidae). Mol. Phyl. Evol. 102: 233–245