Highland lark

Highland lark
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Alaudidae
Genus: Corypha
Species:
C. kurrae
Binomial name
Corypha kurrae
(Lynes, 1923)

The highland lark (Corypha kurrae) is a species of small passerine bird in the lark family Alaudidae found in Africa from Guinea to west Sudan. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the rufous-naped lark (Corypha africana).

Taxonomy

The highland lark was formally described in 1923 by the British Admiral Hubert Lynes based on a specimen collected near Kurra in the Darfur region of southwest Sudan. He considered it to be a subspecies of the rufous-naped lark and coined the trinomial name Mirafra africana kurrae.[1][2] The highland lark is now treated as a separate species and placed in the genus Corypha based on the results of two molecular phylogenetic studies by a team of ornithologists led by Per Alström that were published in 2023 and 2024.[3][4][5]

Five subspecies are recognised:[5]

  • C. k. henrici (Bates, GL, 1930) – Guinea to southwest Ivory Coast
  • C. k. batesi (Bannerman, 1923) – central Nigeria to southeast Niger and west Chad
  • C. k. stresemanni (Bannerman, 1923) – central north Cameroon
  • C. k. bamendae (Serle, 1959) – west Cameroon
  • C. k. kurrae (Lynes, 1923) – west Sudan

References

  1. ^ Lynes, Hubert (1923). "Mirafra fischeri furensis subsp. nov". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 43: 95.
  2. ^ Mayr, Ernst; Greenway, James C. Jr, eds. (1960). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 9. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 10.
  3. ^ Alström, P.; Mohammadi, Z.; Enbody, E.D.; Irestedt, M.; Engelbrecht, D.; Crochet, P.-A.; Guillaumet, A.; Rancilhac, L.; Tieleman, B.I.; Olsson, U.; Donald, P.F.; Stervander, M. (2023). "Systematics of the avian family Alaudidae using multilocus and genomic data". Avian Research. 14: 100095. doi:10.1016/j.avrs.2023.100095.
  4. ^ Alström, P.; Mohammadi, Z.; Donald, P.F.; Nymark, M.; Enbody, E.D.; Irestedt, M.; Elisha, E.B.; Ndithia, H.K.; Tieleman, B.I.; Engelbrecht, D.; Olsson, U.; Rancilhac, L.; Stervander, M. (2024). "Integrative taxonomy reveals unrecognised species diversity in African Corypha larks (Aves: Alaudidae)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 200 (4): 1080–1108. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad107.
  5. ^ a b Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2024). "Nicators, Bearded Reedling, larks". IOC World Bird List Version 14.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 12 September 2024.


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