Galerida cristata
Silhouette: Gossipguy and T. Michael Keesey · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
The crested lark (Galerida cristata) is a species of lark widespread across Eurasia and northern Africa. It is a non-migratory bird, but can occasionally be found as a vagrant in Great Britain. The crested lark was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It was classified in the genus Alauda until German naturalist Friedrich Boie placed it in the new genus Galerida in 1821. Colin Harrison recommended lumping members of Galerida and Lullula back into Alauda in 1865 due to a lack of defining characteristics. The current scientific name is derived from Latin. Galerida was the name for a lark with a crest, from galerum, "cap", and cristata means "crested". Alban Guillaumet and colleagues noted the distinctiveness of populations from the Maghreb—birds in the dryer parts of Morocco and Tunisia had longer bills while those in more coastal northern parts had shorter bills typical of the European subspecies. The authors sampled the mitochondrial DNA and found they were distinct genetically. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Doñana National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 2 | Monfragüe National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 3 | Camargue | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 4 | Hortobágy National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 5 | Kiskunság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 6 | Sierra Nevada National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 7 | Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 8 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 9 | Fertő-Hanság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 10 | Ranthambore National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 11 | Keoladeo National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 12 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 13 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Crested Lark sighting in Camargue on a given day, based on 548 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 24th most-seen of the 212 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and October
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Crested Lark in Camargue on a given day, against about 20% in July–September and December, the lowest months. Those are among Camargue's wettest months, with about 70 mm of rain a month against 10 mm in July.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Crested Lark sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 13
Of the 13 parks where we can rate Crested Lark sightings, Camargue ranks 3rd at about 30%. The best odds are in Doñana National Park (Spain, about 40%) and Monfragüe National Park (Spain, about 30%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Crested Lark is recorded against all the birds logged in Camargue (548 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.
