Bimaculated Lark   Melanocorypha bimaculata

Etymology :

• Melanocorypha : Greek Word melas –black; koruphos-
• Bimaculata : Latrin word bi– double; maculatus spotted

Vernacular Names: Kash: Jal, Guj: Moto sadu chandul, Mar: Kantheri Chandol

Distribution in India: Winter visitor in North and North-West India.

Description: Size of 17 cm. It is a large, fairly robust lark with deep-based heavy bill, rather long wings, and short tail. It has prominent whitish supercilium, distinct dark loral stripe, rufous-tinged ear-coverts; upper parts are buffy grey-brown or more rufescent grey-brown, heavily streaked blackish; wings and tail dark grey-brown, upperwing-coverts and tertials with pale buffish tips and edges, rectrices with broad white tips; whitish or pale buffish below, breast side tinged more buffish, with fine dark streaks, prominent blackish patch on side of lower neck/upper breast; underwing brown-grey; bill yellowish or pinkish, dark culmen and tip of lower mandible; legs pinkish to yellowish. The sexes are similar, though female on average smaller.

Habitat: It is found in open habitats; generally stonier and less grassy terrain and, when breeding, in more mountainous or hilly country up to 2700 m.

Food Habits:It eats seeds and small invertebrates like bugs, termites and beetles.  Adults in breeding season apparently feed mainly on invertebrates, and these also form main or sole diet of nestlings. It forages on the ground, usually alone or small groups.

Breeding Habits:They breed in Mar-Aug in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Lebanon and Syria.  The male mating song flight is an irregular “circles” at low height, with rather slow, somewhat jerky wing beats and closed tail, or hanging rather still, or drifting about high up and with usually rather quick, continuous wing beats and spread tail. The nest is built by female alone. The nest is a loose cup of grass and rootlets, with thinner material internally than, the outer walls may also contain pieces of paper, rags and dung, constructed in a depression on ground, usually sheltered by tussock or small bush. They lay a clutch of 3–6 eggs. The incubation is done by female only for a  period  of 12–13 days. The young leave the nest in 9–12 days, still not capable of flying until. 15–16 days. The chicks are fed by both parents for up to 30 days.

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