Eremophila alpestris
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Horned Lark sighting in Joshua Tree National Park on a given day, based on 216 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 44th most-seen of the 141 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Horned Lark in Joshua Tree National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February–April and December, the lowest months.
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.
7th of 27
Of the 27 parks where we can rate Horned Lark sightings, Joshua Tree National Park ranks 7th at about 10%. The best odds are in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park (Mongolia, about 70%), Badlands National Park (United States, about 50%) and Hemis National Park (India, about 20%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Horned Lark that you can see in Joshua Tree National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Common Raven (about 90%), Black-throated Sparrow (about 80%) and House Finch (about 70%), 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 Joshua Tree National Park (216 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.
