Critically Endangered
Raso Lark
Alauda razae
The Raso lark is a small passerine bird with a highly restricted range, being found only on Raso islet in the Cape Verde Islands.
Appearance
The body has black and brown short streaks and paler around the chest with an erectile crest. The bill is thick-based and robust, longer for the males. The Raso lark is considered an adult when it has developed a reddish-brown tone between the ears and tail, with a pattern on the crown and back.
The Raso larks can range from sizes between 14 and 18 cm.
Published measurements include mass about 24.
Range and habitat
The Raso lark is restricted in range to only Raso islet in the Cape Verde archipelago, although historically it is believed to have ranged over two other islands, Branco and São Vicente Island. All three of these islands were joined in the last ice age. Evidence from subfossil bone deposits reveal that the Raso lark once also existed on the islands of Santa Luzia, São Vicente, Santo Antão, and possibly Branco during the glacial times, before human colonization in the 15th century.
The Raso lark is a small passerine bird with a highly restricted range, being found only on Raso islet in the Cape Verde Islands. Additionally, Raso larks are vulnerable to the threat of accidental introduction of cats, dogs, rats by fishermen or other visitors to the island.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Both sexes also feed on grass seeds, and insects such as butterflies, moths and grasshoppers. Breeding is very unpredictable, as it is dependent on the occurrence of rain.
Courtship behaviour is similar to that of the Eurasian skylark. The male courts the female by singing softly, raising its chest, and hopping up and down while the wings are spread open. Once done mating, both the male and female collect dried grass in order to build a nest.
In crisis
This critically endangered member of the family Alaudidae lives in very arid terrain, and is considered one of the least known birds in the Western Palaearctic region, due to its remoteness and the lack of much ornithological study on the archipelago as a whole. The Raso lark is threatened by predators such as the Cape Verde giant gecko and birds such as the lesser Cape Verde kestrel, brown-necked raven, and Cape Verde barn owl, that make it difficult for them to survive.
Raso 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 Raso Lark, Wikidata item Q890903. 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.
