Critically Endangered
Archer's lark
Heteromirafra archeri
Archer's lark is a perching bird in the family Alaudidae (order Passeriformes) — Heteromirafra archeri, recorded as Critically Endangered.
Appearance
Its plumage is predominantly brown and reddish brown. It has a short, thin tail that is brown with white outer feathers.
The Liben lark is about 14 cm (5.5 in) long, with a relatively large head and short, plump body.
Range and habitat
The bird's preferred habitat is open grasslands and rocky country, vegetated with tussocky perennial grasses and having an annual rainfall of 300–400 mm (12–16 in). The total area in that Liben lark can be found is estimated to be only 52 km2 (20 mi2), largely in Ethiopia. Due to habitat loss, Archer's lark has not been found in Somalia since at least 1970.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
Its diet is likely to consist of seeds and small invertebrates, among them worms.
In crisis
It is threatened by habitat loss. The population is estimated to number 50–250 mature individuals, based on a lack of confirmed sightings despite several searches having been conducted since 1955 in Somalia and Ethiopia. The species was declared critically endangered in 2005 and a conversation program to restore and protect grasslands has been initiated.
The region's local human population is under increasing pressure due to the arrival of refugees from drought-stricken and tribal conflict areas. This has led to a transition from nomadic pastoralism to permanent cultivation, posing a significant threat to the species.
Archer's lark is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Archer's lark, Wikidata item Q167833. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
