Appearance:

Short foldable crest. Pale eye-ring and supercilium. Long primary projection (primaries extend well beyond tertials), white trailing edge to wing and white outer tail feathers. Tail much longer than in Wood Lark.

Sound:

Song a pleasing energetic stream of chirping, merry trills, interspersed with mimicry. Trills quite resonant with fairly full tone. Song usually given in flight high in the air. Less characteristic, shorter, weaker and more varied song when given from ground. Most typical flight call a short trilling "chirrup", with the end note noticeably lower pitched than the start. Also several other more cryptic calls.

Song:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Appearance:

A small, tit-like passerine with brown back, grey head and diagnostic black mask. Plumage comparable to Red-backed Shrike, but build and behaviour very different. Male with broader mask than female. Juveniles with pale, uniform plumage, lacking mask altogether. May be confused with Bearded Reedling if mask not seen, but note shorter tail with no graduation. Tit-like behaviour, but less inquisitive.

Sound:

Call a sharp clear high pitched whistle "pju-eee-uu", with the middle part accented and with a raised pitch Or just an all descending whistle "pjuuuuuuu".

Contact call:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Sound recording:Recorded by Edmunds Racinskis