For birders all over the world

Temminck's Horned Lark in The Gambia

by Brian Small

On the morning of 23rd February 2002, whilst leading a tour to The Gambia for Limosa Holidays Birdwatching Tours, Mike Crewe and I discovered a Temminck's Horned Lark Eremophila bilopha on Fajara golf course. Such an amazing and unexpected record caused a great deal of pleasure and excitement amongst the group, which included a local guide, though after an hour of watching the bird we left and to our knowledge it was not seen subsequently.

The range of Temminck's Horned Lark is described in Birds of Africa (Academic Press) as NW and N Africa, Sinai, Jordan, Syria, W Iraq, N and NE Saudi Arabia and as accidental in Lebanon and Malta. Within N.Africa its distribution is noted as far south as N.Mauritania (and as such is included in the excellent new guide to the Birds of Western Africa by Nick Borrow), so its occurrence in The Gambia came as a great surprise and is considered both the most southerly record ever (circa 800km further south than any previous records) and the most extra-limital record ever.

The images here were taken on video and document the record. Note the lovely warm pinky-sand coloured upperparts, the lack of yellow on the face (present in the Atlas race of Shore Lark), and the strong facial markings, which make Temminck's Horned Lark unmistakeable. The horns were not as long as might be expected on breeding birds, but you can't have everything can you?

Brian Small