Skylark

When Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote his famous and much-loved piece “The Lark Ascending”, in 1914, there were many more larks ascending into the English sky than there are today. Indeed, the alarming decline in numbers in recent years (75% between 1972 and 1996, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), is such that the skylark (Alauda arvensis) is on the red list of threatened species.

However, if you go to the right places there are plenty of skylarks to be found, although they are heard more often than they are seen. Modern farming methods have made it difficult for skylark populations to grow, but this is not the case in areas that are not intensively farmed, such as downs and moorland, heaths, sand dunes and near coastal lagoons. On a warm summer’s day on a hillside above Wensleydale in North Yorkshire, not long ago, I heard a constant succession of skylarks as I walked across the open moorland.

Appearance

The skylark is a small bird, some 18 centimetres in length, so it is therefore somewhere between the sparrow and the starling in size. It is mostly brown on the head, back and wings, with buff to white underparts and brown streaks on the breast. The tail is quite long and the bill pointed. Adult birds have a small crest on the head. Males and females have similar plumage.

Behaviour

The most familiar feature of the skylark is its song flight, performed by male birds to establish and proclaim their territories. The bird climbs higher and higher, singing as it goes. It appears to pause for a rest and then goes higher still. It may stay at its highest point for two or three minutes before gliding back to the ground, although flights of over an hour have been recorded. Being a relatively small bird, it is often difficult to spot against a bright sky, or may only be seen as a small dark speck. Heights of 1,000 feet are not unknown, at which the skylark is all but invisible.

When not soaring skywards, the skylark spends most of its time on the ground, walking or running rather than hopping. It may perch on walls or fences, but not usually in trees. The skylark feeds mainly on seeds, insects and worms.

This page ofthe RSPB website includes a recording on the skylark’s song, a video of chicks being fed, and much more information.

Breeding

It is the nesting and breeding habits of the skylark that have led to its rapid decline in numbers. It nests on the ground in grass or crops, with the female laying three to five eggs, which take about 14 days to hatch. The females do all the incubating while the males are engaged on their song flights. The chicks leave the nest at about 10 days, hiding in the grass until they are able to fly and feed themselves at about three weeks.

In order to be sure of increasing their numbers, skylarks must raise at least two (preferably three) successful broods during the season, and four broods are not unknown. However, in order to do this, the grass or crops must be at the right height at the right time to make nest-building possible and keep predators at bay. The recent trend towards autumn-sown cereals has disrupted the pattern to such an extent that some birds can only manage one brood a year. There is also a problem caused by the move from hay production to silage, as the latter requires more frequent cutting of the grass, again making it impossible for enough broods to be raised during the season, as farm machinery can easily destroy nests.

Other problems are caused by pesticides that reduce the stock of insect food for skylarks, and overstocking of pastureland which makes the grass too short for the birds and raises the risk of nests being trampled by farm animals. 

Prospects for restoring skylark numbers

Moves to bring skylarks back to their traditional homes on British farmland have included the establishment of “beetle banks”, these being raised mounds in which insects can breed undisturbed and in turn provide food for bird populations. Farmers are also being encouraged to leave small areas in the centres of fields unsown, so that skylarks have somewhere to build nests in safety.

In the meantime, the skylark continues to be a red list species. If today’s young generation is to enjoy the very real pleasure that their parents had, of hearing (and maybe seeing) this bird in all its splendour, a little hill-walking exercise is also called for!

© John Welford