Mirafra javanica
Silhouette: Gossipguy and T. Michael Keesey · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The singing bush lark or Horsfield's bush lark (Mirafra javanica) is a species of lark which inhabits grassland throughout most of Australia and much of Southeast Asia. It was described by the American naturalist Thomas Horsfield.
The singing bush lark was formally described in 1821 by the American naturalist Thomas Horsfield from a specimen collected on the island of Java. He placed the lark in the genus Mirafra and coined the binomial name Mirafra javanica.
The singing bush lark is one of 100 species of larks of the rather large and fairly diverse family, Alaudidae. They are small to medium-small passerines, usually with rather drab, brownish plumage. Predominantly an Old World family, the species are distributed widely across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Indian subcontinent but the singing bush lark is the only species occurring naturally in Wallacea, New Guinea and Australia.
The alternate shortened name "bush-lark" can also refer to many of the other species in the genus Mirafra. The alternate name of "cinnamon bush lark" is also an alternate name for the flappet lark. Other alternate names for the singing bush lark include the Australasian bushlark, Australian lark... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Komodo National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 2 | Tsavo East National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 3 | Awash National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 4 | Samburu National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 5 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 6 | Tsavo West National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 7 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gembira Loka Zoo | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 2 | Sea World Indonesia | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an Australasian Bushlark sighting in Samburu National Reserve on a given day, based on 63 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 185th most-seen of the 341 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and April
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report an Australasian Bushlark in Samburu National Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in January, March, May and August–November, the lowest months. Those are among Samburu National Reserve's wettest months, with about 55 mm of rain a month against 5 mm in September.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Australasian Bushlark sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 7
Of the 7 parks where we can rate Australasian Bushlark sightings, Samburu National Reserve ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Komodo National Park (Indonesia, about 20%), Tsavo East National Park (Kenya, about 10%) and Awash National Park (Ethiopia, about 10%).
Same family: Alaudidae
The closest relatives of the Australasian Bushlark that you can see in Samburu National Reserve (family Alaudidae, Larks) are Pink-breasted Lark (about 50%), Fawn-colored Lark (about 40%) and Fischer's Sparrow-Lark (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Australasian Bushlark is recorded against all the birds logged in Samburu National Reserve (63 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.
