Archer's Lark

Archer's Lark has a distinct silhouette. Quite compact, it shows a quite massive head, relatively short wings and tail. The upper parts are tricoloured (black, fawn and white). The darkest parts are the cap and mantle; black being the dominant colour. The scapulars and tertials, black and fawn, are edged in black and white, giving a scaly appearance. The wings are more uniformly brown. The neck, which appears thin compared to the head, is clearly more grey and finely streaked. The head is wide. In profile, the dark brown eye stands out well as the lore and cheek are light. In addition, it is surmounted by a wide cream eyebrow. Viewed from the front, the head appears chubby, with the fawn parotids standing out. The black cap has a clearly visible light median stripe. Viewed from the back, the cap shows finer stripes (up to 10 on a photo), alternately black and fawn, on either side of the median stripe. The bill, fairly short and thick, shows a straight undersurface and a curved culmen. It appears bicoloured on the ground, horn or even slightly blue at the base and dark at the tip. The tail is fairly warm brown, the outer rectrices being cream and visible when spread in flight. The underparts are clearly rufous. The chest is lighter and speckled with small blackish streaks. The throat is white. The legs are pinkish, with a rather long tarsus, and they have a very long back claw.
The sexes are identical. The juvenile is barely different. Its plumage is generally less dark and slightly less contrasted. The upper feathers are more widely edged with cream giving a typical scaly appearance. The beak is pinkish. Two subspecies are described, archeri and sidamoensis, which differ only in plumage and size details.On the ground, Archer's Lark could be confused with the Rufous Lark (A. somalica) which cohabits with it and is also heavily streaked above and rufous below. However, the latter is slightly smaller, is seen less frequently and is often seen in flocks. Its streaked crown has no clear median stripe, the bill is weaker, the face is not entirely pale and above all, the upper plumage is two-toned and appears non-scaly.