Dunn's Lark

Dunn's Lark is a sandy-coloured lark living in desert areas. It looks similar to an Ammomanes species but is always easily recognizable. It is about medium size, smaller than A. Élégante and bigger than A. Isabelline, with a relatively compact body and short tail.
The upperparts, mantle and wings, are sandy blond, clearly striped and mottled with light reddish brown. The underparts are off-white with a pinkish tinge in the chest area. The sides of the neck, slightly mottled, hint at the beginning of a breast band, which may cause confusion with a Calandrella species.
The very long tertials are the same colour as the body, and the black-ish tips of the external primaries create a short, but visible Projection primary at the back. The median rectrices are light reddish brown, hiding the others, which are blackish-brown and have sandy edges.
The head is quite large and shows the same colours as the body: the crown is striped, the dark eye is circled by a white ring along a light eyebrow, which is then joined by a dark line below the eye, and this line then joins a dark border of the auricular coverts. In front, at the level of the lores, a dark arc, which may look blackish depending on the angle of view, is visible at the contact of the pale circle. The front of the lores is pale. There is a very faint moustachial stripe. All this creates a typical head pattern. From the front, the head appears bulbous, especially when the wind lifts the auricular coverts. The pale beak, ranging from pink to bright red, is quite wide and curved.The culmen, straight at the base first, curves to the front. It is from 3/4 in front that the height of the beak is best distinguished. There are individual variations in the size of the beak, probably related to sex, and the bulky element may not be obvious.
The legs are rosy or yellowish, with a short hind claw.
The juvenile is distinguished from the adult by the upper feathers edged with dark and then pale, but very discreetly, so at a distance it does not seem different from the adult.
In flight, for example when the territorial male sings, the bird's appearance is typical from below. The wide pale wings, translucent in the sun, contrast sharply with the short all-black tail. Against a very bright background, one might get the impression that the bird has no tail.
The Arabian subspecies eremodites is more typical than the type subspecies. The head pattern is more marked, with a clear malar line this time, the bill is bulkier and the upper parts are more visibly streaked.