Kidepo lark

Kidepo lark
Conservation status
Not evaluated (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Alaudidae
Genus:	Corypha
Species:	C. kidepoensis
Binomial name
Corypha kidepoensis (Macdonald, 1940)

The Kidepo lark (Corypha kidepoensis) is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae found in South Sudan and Uganda. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the red-winged lark.

Taxonomy

The Kidepo lark was formally described in 1940 by the Scottish-Australian ornithologist James Macdonald based on a specimen that he had collected in southern South Sudan at Ero on the boundary of Didinga Hills with the plain of the Kidepo River. He considered it as a subspecies of the red-winged lark and coined the trinomial name Mirafra hypermetra kidepoensis.[1][2] The Kidepo lark is now treated as a separate species and placed in the genus Corypha based on the results of molecular phylogenetic studies by a team of ornithologists led by Per Alström that were published in 2023 and 2024.[3][4][5]

Two subspecies are recognised:[5]

• C. k. kathangorensis (Cave, 1940) – southeast South Sudan
• C. k. kidepoensis (Macdonald, 1940) – south South Sudan and northeast Uganda

References

1. Macdonald, James David (1940). "A new race of francolin and a new race of lark from the Sudan". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 60: 57-59 [59].
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. 9.
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. 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.