Eurasian Skylark

How to recognise it

• Grey-brown speckled upperparts, short blunt crest, bold yellowish-white eyebrow ending behind the ear coverts
• Yellowish-white breast with dense blackish spots ending sharply against the unstreaked belly
• In flight: short tail, short broad wings, white edges visible as it flies away
• Male and female look alike, but the male has broader wings than the female

Call and song

The trilling song is delivered in a song flight, the male hovering 50 to 100 metres up, where it can look like a dot in the sky. The phrases are frantically fast, with twittering, whistles, rolling notes and mimicry, and can last between three and 15 minutes. Calls are a dry trilling "prrit", more piping "p(riih" when alarmed.

Where and when

A partial migrant, it breeds commonly in Sweden up into Lapland, mainly on clover leys and grass meadows, so it is scarcer north of the cultivation limit. It often arrives in February to March and is reported most in March. In September to November Swedish breeders leave for western Europe, but a few winter in southern Sweden. It is reported from all 21 counties, but rarely in December and January.

Food and behaviour

In summer it eats mainly insects, in winter mostly seeds, sprouts, fresh grass shoots and small leaves. It walks on the ground, searching the surface for food. The grass nest is on the ground, and the female alone incubates three to six eggs for about eleven days. The young leave the nest after ten days, before they can fly. After breeding, skylarks often gather in large flocks.