Sentinel lark
Species of bird
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The sentinel lark (Corypha athi) is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae found in Kenya and Tanzania. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the rufous-naped lark.
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| Sentinel lark | |
|---|---|
| |
| Subspecies Corypha athi harterti in Tsavo East, Kenya | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Alaudidae |
| Genus: | Corypha |
| Species: | C. athi |
| Binomial name | |
| Corypha athi (Hartert, 1900) | |
Taxonomy
The sentinel lark was formally described in 1900 by the German ornithologist Ernst Hartert based on a specimen collected on the plains of the Athi River in Kenya. He considered it to be a subspecies of the rufous-naped lark and coined the trinomial name Mirafra africana athi.[1][2] The sentinel lark is now treated as a separate species and placed in the genus Corypha. This placement is based on the results of two molecular phylogenetic studies by a team of ornithologists led by Per Alström that were published in 2023 and 2024.[3][4][5]
Two subspecies are recognised:[5]
- C. a. athi (Hartert, EJO, 1900) – central Kenya to northeast Tanzania
- C. a. harterti (Neumann, 1908) – central south Kenya
