Thekla & Crested Lark Identification, Cerro de San Pedro, Madrid, 15th April (1 Viewer)

[Paul Chapman]

Can I check my "understanding" of these two species? The photos were from the same site in the same few hours on the same day. Do people agree that the first two are Thekla Lark and the next two are Crested Lark? I was really working off the back of breast streaking and bill structure.

Many thanks

Paul

 

[Frank van Drogen]

Googling found me this: Some notes on Thekla and Crested Lark identification in central and southern Portugal

 

[Paul Chapman]

Googling found me this: Some notes on Thekla and Crested Lark identification in central and southern Portugal

Cheers. I will have a read.

All the best

Paul

 

[THE_FERN]

caveat that I've not revised these 2 recently: 007 looks like crested based on bill. 010 agree thekla

 

[Paul Chapman]

caveat that I've not revised these 2 recently: 007 looks like crested based on bill. 010 agree thekla

You flag up something that we found interesting there. These two appeared clearly to be a pair and we considered that they were the same species. The one that you highlight (07) certainly has a weaker bill whereas the other had a stronger bill. They were photographed at exactly the same time together. I tend to keep a maximum of ten processed photos per species for each checklist. I attach all the "Thekla" photos and the first seven are the first bird (007) on the flat rock and the next three are the second bird (010) on the adjacent pointed rock a few feet away.

Many thanks indeed - all a learning curve! We wondered about maybe sexual differences on bill strength but we considered them to both be Theklas.

Paul