Les Cochevis huppé et de Thékla

The crested larks of Eurasia present quite an identification problem where they overlap each other. Crested Lark (Galerida cristata) prefers sparsely-vegetated environments, both in the lowlands and on lower mountain slopes. Thekla Lark (Galerida theklae) is resident in open country often in higher, rockier areas than Crested Lark and also in bushier habitats. Thekla Lark has a shorter crest and smaller bill, and in flight look for the dull grayish underwing coverts (contrastingly buffy on Crested Lark).
The bill of a Thekla Lark looks like it’s pointing upwards. Crested Lark has a somewhat larger beak, only slightly curved, whereas the Thekla’s is shorterin flight has a shorter tail and shorter more triangular wings lacking the white trailing edge seen on a Skylark.
Thekla Lark is a heavily patterned breast with neat bold black streaks, especially at the sides of the breast extending across the sides of the neck.
In addition, Thekla Larks tend to look grey-brown rather than sandy-brown and the crest is typically shorter and neater but none of these features are completely reliable.
We have published a second article about this subject titled Identifier les Cochevis huppé et de Thékla en photos.