Ashy Crowned Sparrow Lark

Description:

This is a small stocky, short-billed lark (12 cm). The male is striking, with brown-black underparts and head apart from brilliant white patches on the nape and a grey crown. The upperparts and wings are pale grey, as is the thick bill. The female Ashy-crowned Sparrow-lark is drabber with pale brown-grey underparts and buff underparts fading to white on the belly, "probably inseparable from the female Black-crowned Sparrow-lark. Dark grey underwing coverts are visible in flight. Young birds are like the female.

Habitat:

The Ashy-crowned Sparrow-lark, Eremopterix grisea also known as the Ashy-crowned Finch-lark, is a passerine bird which is a resident breeder in South Asia from Pakistan through peninsular India down to Sri Lanka. In Indian ornithological circles it is sometimes referred to as Blackbellied Finch-Lark

Notes:

The bird's plumage blends so well with its habitat that the bird, secure in this knowledge, may remain motionless and only whirrs away when almost trampled upon.