Description:

A small chunky, neat, pale and short-billed lark. Stouter bill than Hume's, with more prominent supercilium and eye-stripe; upperparts generally warmer, with more prominent streaking; dark breast-side patches often apparent. Breast has warm rufous-buff wash, especially at sides.

Distribution:

Common passage migrant and summer visitor all across Gilgit-Baltistan, except from south-eastern borders. Prefers dry areas with sparse and low vegetation cover, on level or undulating terrain, with sandy or stony soils, ranging from 1000m to 3500m.

Behavior:

Forages on ground, singly or in small or large flocks. Searches slowly, picks items from ground surface. Mainly feeds on invertebrates during spring, also seeds and green parts of plants in other seasons. Invertebrate food very diverse, variable among areas, chiefly beetles, ants, bugs and snails; seeds mostly of weeds, also cereal grain.

Photo Gallery:

Range & Occurrence:

Resident Species

Summer Breeder

Winter Visitor

Passage Migrant

Distribution Map of Greater Short-toed Lark in Gilgit-Baltistan (Status: )

Seasonal Occurrence of Greater Short-toed Lark

Resources:

Birds of Pakistan: Helm Field Guides (R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
The Birds of Pakistan (T. J. Roberts)
Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (C. Inskipp, R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide (P. Rasmussen & J. Anderton)
Birds of India: Collins Field Guide (N. Arlott)
Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan (S. Ali & S. D. Ripley)
Handbook of the Birds of the World (https://www.hbw.com)
The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World, 6th Edition
iNaturalist BoGB (inaturalist.org/projects/birds-of-gilgit-baltistan)
Birds of Gilgit-Baltistan (http://fb.me/birdsgb)

*Gallery images on this page are shared from flickr.com, and are copyrighted to their respective creators or owners.