Bulgaria 2007: Larks, Larks
I like larks, and if I have anything to regret about being born a North American, it’s that we have only one (but a splendid one, of course) species of alaudid to entertain us. It’s different in the Old World, and Bulgaria has its nice little share of fancy larks to enjoy.
Skylarks, of course, were the commonest, their familiar songs everywhere around us when we were in the countryside.
Crested Larks were common in most of the villages, but for some reason I never managed to get a presentable photo; this one will have to do, and you’ll have to believe me that the bird is really very attractive.
We also had the great good fortune to have very good looks at Woodlarks a couple of times. In fact, our best looks were so good that I forgot to take a picture, entirely absorbed in admiring the birds as they fed just a few feet away on the ground. I was reminded again on this trip how bat-like singing birds can look, their wingtips rounded and their tails oddly short.
Those three species are all widespread in Europe, but Calandra and Greater Short-toed Larks are more restricted in their ranges, typical birds of steppe and overgrazed fields in the south and east.
On only one day did we have Greater Short-toed Larks, fine little sandy birds with sooty necksides and a slightly maladroit song flight: fly, then sing a phrase, then fly some more, then another phrase, as if they had trouble doing both at once. One bird I watched for some time had a song phrase somewhat like the ascending jingle of Horned Lark, and I kept looking for that bird until I figured out that it was in fact “just” the short-toe tinkling away over my head.
The same habitat harbors Calandra Lark, a great bruiser of a bird that we saw along the edges of rough fields, too. The size, dark underwing, and exaggerated slow flapping made me think of shorebirds in flight display.
This bird was on its way to feed young. Though the picture is no better than it should be, it does show the dark underwing and the extremely broad trailing edge to the secondaries.
On one of our last days, we went high into the mountains to look for Horned Larks. We missed them, but I can’t say I was disappointed in the lark show that we had had.
