Eremophila alpestris
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The horned lark or shore lark (Eremophila alpestris) is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae found across the northern hemisphere. It is known as "horned lark" in North America for distinctive feathers on the heads of the male birds in summer, and as "shore lark" in Europe because it can be found on shorelines in the winter.
The horned lark was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Alauda alpestris. Linnaeus based his account on the description and illustration by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands that was published between 1729 and 1732. Linnaeus specified the type locality as North America but this has been restricted to the coastal areas of South Carolina. The horned lark is now placed together with Temminck's lark in the genus Eremophila that was introduced in 1828 by the German naturalist Friedrich Boie. The specific epithet alpestris is Latin meaning "of the high mountains", from Alpes, the Alps. A molecular genetic study of the Alaudidae published in 2023 found that Temminck's lark (Eremophila... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Novosibirsk | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 3 | Mexico City | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 4 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Bogota | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 6 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 9 | Detroit | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zoo Pilsen | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 2 | Beijing Zoo | 🇨🇳 China |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Horned Lark sighting in Badlands National Park on a given day, based on 651 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 8th most-seen of the 120 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 80% of wildlife watchers report a Horned Lark in Badlands National Park on a given day, against about 30% in March, the lowest month. That is one of Badlands National Park's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain against 80 mm in May.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Horned Lark sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 27
Of the 27 parks where we can rate Horned Lark sightings, Badlands National Park ranks 2nd at about 50%. The best odds are in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park (Mongolia, about 70%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Horned Lark that you can see in Badlands National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Western Meadowlark (about 90%), Rock Wren (about 70%) and Cliff Swallow (about 60%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Horned Lark is recorded against all the birds logged in Badlands National Park (651 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
