Despite there being ten species of lark recorded from Angyata Osugat - Oldoinyo Sambu (the”Lark Plains” some 40 kms north of Arusha) I have never recorded more than eight in a day. We know from past records that a form of Singing Bush Lark attributed to Mirafra cantillans marginata occurs thereabouts, yet in more than twenty visits over the past six months there has not been so much as a squeak from this – arguably the most widespread and catholic in its ecological requirements – of the nine lark species known from the site.
On April 21 David Peterson and I flushed a single rufous and buff Mirafra from open Maasai pastureland about 5 km WNW of Oldoinyo Sambu. Only one brief stationary view was obtained of this lone individual: although we saw it many times in flight. No conclusive ID was arrived at.
On April 26 I returned to the spot with 40X HD scope and a cheap tape recorder to refind and if possible study this bird in greater detail.
The morning was sunny and warm, scattered cumulus were drifting westward off Mount Meru on a gentle breeze in the direction of the Northern Rift. A perfect morning for larks. Sure enough on arrival at 8.30 the sky was full of LBJs going about their business. Red-capped Larks Calandrella cinerea and Fischer’s Sparrow Larks Eremopteryx leucopareia together with numerous African (Grassland) Pipits Anthus cinnamomeus were flushed by the Landrover as we descended to the site through recently broken Maasai/Warusha shambas of freshly planted maize and soya.
Arriving on site I set-off into the by-now dewy pasture where David and I had seen the bird. A very gently sloping area, of at most one square kilometre, lying between three low hills, yet open to the western horizon. A blanket of knee high grasses and perhaps twenty predominant flower species, most in full bloom, partially concealed numerous shallow erosion runnels of exposed and warm reddish-yellow soil. The site was being grazed by 12 Grant’s Gazelles (including one laid–up juvenile), six Zebra (three juveniles) and 14 Wildebeeste (five juveniles) when I arrived. The sweet aerial song of Athi Short-toed Calandrella athensis and the simple melancholy pipings of a couple of perched Rufous-naped Larks Mirafra africana were almost drowned by an unfamiliar Alaudid choir. Looking up it was apparent that there were at least four widely-spaced Mirafra larks in full song circling 30 m above the ground on trembling “pipistrelle bat’s” wings. Although it was difficult to “get anything on them” visually you could make out distinctly rufous edges to the flight feathers that gave the wings a bright quivering reddish look.
The aerial song was essentially of two very different types. The dominant one a subdued, fussy-buzzing jangle, repeated again and again with scarcely any pause between each expression. The other less frequent was, to my ears, a rather deliberate melancholy clear whistle of between three and five notes going up and then down the scale: “pe-pee-pip-pee-oo”. Occasionally one or two birds together gave a sparrow-like flight call “cheip” or “schreip” when they flew low across the site. After some time I eventually found a perched bird, singing from atop one of the few stunted acacia bushes in the “midst of the core area”, around which perhaps six flying individuals in total were singing. Over the next couple of hours three separate individual were frequently scoped whilst they sang for periods, of up to about five minutes, a metre or so from the ground on the acacia bush tops. After singing from a bush top they would rise to perform the aerial display flight, returning to the ground where they could only rarely be observed. This pattern of behaviour continued until I left at 1300 hrs. One bird sang from the ground: a brief medley of “soft chucks”, suggesting the commencement of an Acrocephalus song, before breaking into the faster series of the typical “Corn Bunting-style” jangling phrases that were given both in the song flight and from the bush top. The whistled notes were, except on one occasion, only given in flight.
All three birds were distinctly worn. There was some “tonal variation” between them. In particular one was much much more rufous in overall “ground colour” than the other two. Points of interest, noted as shared by each, were as follows:
Breeding birds in full song; plumage of each well-worn with the fringes of most covert and flight feathers very abraded.
Rather nondescript Mirafras. Dull brown above fairly uniformly streaked darker on the crown, nape, mantle and rump. The heaviest markings on the upperparts were on the scapulars which showed distinct dark triangular centres to all feathers. The tertials were almost wholly dark brown, especially the exposed innermost which had only the narrowest of paler borders remaining. The tail was dark yet with distinctly rufous fringes to the innermost feathers on at least two of the birds. The outermost tail feathers were conspicuously largely white but this could be seen properly only in flight. The upper tail coverts were conspicuously pale, almost sandy, bleached-looking, and the lightest area of the upperparts overall.
Undertail coverts, belly, lower breast and especially the throat were a clean white. A narrow dark necklace composed of delicate brownish black streak-spots coalesced very slightly at the sides of the neck, beneath the rear corner of the ear coverts, to form a small indistinct dark patch. Beneath this there was a conspicuously cinnamon-buff wash of similar width to the necklace.
The head was, for a lark, only subtly marked on all three individuals. Comparatively plain with at most only an indistinct supercillium, this feature was discernible largely behind the eye owing to the presence of a dark eyeline extending backwards just behind the eye. The lores, face and ear coverts were largely pale: a sullied, whitish-buff giving a largely pale-faced look, though there was a diffuse darkish spot at the rear lower corner of the cheek. Even at long range the white throat contrasted markedly with the remainder of the head, especially as the bird sang. There was however no real suggestion of a pale collar. The irides were a light or medium brown.
The bill was large, quite stout. Both mandibles were distally darker horn as was the entire culmen. The base of the lower mandible in particular was typically a much paler horn. The cutting edges brightening to a yellowish-brown. The gape and mouth were conspicuously bright, a yellowish orange.
The legs were quite bright, a “typical” pinkish brown.
Any comments from any other Mirafra-ophile or Alaudophile would be most welcome indeed!
From the L-archives (!)
29 April, 2006
“I went back for that Mirafra!
Despite there being ten species of lark recorded from Angyata Osugat - Oldoinyo Sambu (the”Lark Plains” some 40 kms north of Arusha) I have never recorded more than eight in a day. We know from past records that a form of Singing Bush Lark attributed to Mirafra cantillans marginata occurs thereabouts, yet in more than twenty visits over the past six months there has not been so much as a squeak from this – arguably the most widespread and catholic in its ecological requirements – of the nine lark species known from the site.
On April 21 David Peterson and I flushed a single rufous and buff Mirafra from open Maasai pastureland about 5 km WNW of Oldoinyo Sambu. Only one brief stationary view was obtained of this lone individual: although we saw it many times in flight. No conclusive ID was arrived at.
On April 26 I returned to the spot with 40X HD scope and a cheap tape recorder to refind and if possible study this bird in greater detail.
The morning was sunny and warm, scattered cumulus were drifting westward off Mount Meru on a gentle breeze in the direction of the Northern Rift. A perfect morning for larks. Sure enough on arrival at 8.30 the sky was full of LBJs going about their business. Red-capped Larks Calandrella cinerea and Fischer’s Sparrow Larks Eremopteryx leucopareia together with numerous African (Grassland) Pipits Anthus cinnamomeus were flushed by the Landrover as we descended to the site through recently broken Maasai/Warusha shambas of freshly planted maize and soya.
Arriving on site I set-off into the by-now dewy pasture where David and I had seen the bird. A very gently sloping area, of at most one square kilometre, lying between three low hills, yet open to the western horizon. A blanket of knee high grasses and perhaps twenty predominant flower species, most in full bloom, partially concealed numerous shallow erosion runnels of exposed and warm reddish-yellow soil. The site was being grazed by 12 Grant’s Gazelles (including one laid–up juvenile), six Zebra (three juveniles) and 14 Wildebeeste (five juveniles) when I arrived. The sweet aerial song of Athi Short-toed Calandrella athensis and the simple melancholy pipings of a couple of perched Rufous-naped Larks Mirafra africana were almost drowned by an unfamiliar Alaudid choir. Looking up it was apparent that there were at least four widely-spaced Mirafra larks in full song circling 30 m above the ground on trembling “pipistrelle bat’s” wings. Although it was difficult to “get anything on them” visually you could make out distinctly rufous edges to the flight feathers that gave the wings a bright quivering reddish look.
The aerial song was essentially of two very different types. The dominant one a subdued, fussy-buzzing jangle, repeated again and again with scarcely any pause between each expression. The other less frequent was, to my ears, a rather deliberate melancholy clear whistle of between three and five notes going up and then down the scale: “pe-pee-pip-pee-oo”. Occasionally one or two birds together gave a sparrow-like flight call “cheip” or “schreip” when they flew low across the site. After some time I eventually found a perched bird, singing from atop one of the few stunted acacia bushes in the “midst of the core area”, around which perhaps six flying individuals in total were singing. Over the next couple of hours three separate individual were frequently scoped whilst they sang for periods, of up to about five minutes, a metre or so from the ground on the acacia bush tops. After singing from a bush top they would rise to perform the aerial display flight, returning to the ground where they could only rarely be observed. This pattern of behaviour continued until I left at 1300 hrs. One bird sang from the ground: a brief medley of “soft chucks”, suggesting the commencement of an Acrocephalus song, before breaking into the faster series of the typical “Corn Bunting-style” jangling phrases that were given both in the song flight and from the bush top. The whistled notes were, except on one occasion, only given in flight.
All three birds were distinctly worn. There was some “tonal variation” between them. In particular one was much much more rufous in overall “ground colour” than the other two. Points of interest, noted as shared by each, were as follows:
Breeding birds in full song; plumage of each well-worn with the fringes of most covert and flight feathers very abraded.
Rather nondescript Mirafras. Dull brown above fairly uniformly streaked darker on the crown, nape, mantle and rump. The heaviest markings on the upperparts were on the scapulars which showed distinct dark triangular centres to all feathers. The tertials were almost wholly dark brown, especially the exposed innermost which had only the narrowest of paler borders remaining. The tail was dark yet with distinctly rufous fringes to the innermost feathers on at least two of the birds. The outermost tail feathers were conspicuously largely white but this could be seen properly only in flight. The upper tail coverts were conspicuously pale, almost sandy, bleached-looking, and the lightest area of the upperparts overall.
Undertail coverts, belly, lower breast and especially the throat were a clean white. A narrow dark necklace composed of delicate brownish black streak-spots coalesced very slightly at the sides of the neck, beneath the rear corner of the ear coverts, to form a small indistinct dark patch. Beneath this there was a conspicuously cinnamon-buff wash of similar width to the necklace.
The head was, for a lark, only subtly marked on all three individuals. Comparatively plain with at most only an indistinct supercillium, this feature was discernible largely behind the eye owing to the presence of a dark eyeline extending backwards just behind the eye. The lores, face and ear coverts were largely pale: a sullied, whitish-buff giving a largely pale-faced look, though there was a diffuse darkish spot at the rear lower corner of the cheek. Even at long range the white throat contrasted markedly with the remainder of the head, especially as the bird sang. There was however no real suggestion of a pale collar. The irides were a light or medium brown.
The bill was large, quite stout. Both mandibles were distally darker horn as was the entire culmen. The base of the lower mandible in particular was typically a much paler horn. The cutting edges brightening to a yellowish-brown. The gape and mouth were conspicuously bright, a yellowish orange.
The legs were quite bright, a “typical” pinkish brown.
Any comments from any other Mirafra-ophile or Alaudophile would be most welcome indeed!
All for now,
James”