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The UK Bird Atlas

Short-toed Lark (Calandrella brachydactyla)Where and when to see it in the UK

Status not yet classified · reporting peaks October · Larks · BOU category A

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Short-toed Lark (Calandrella brachydactyla)
Len Worthington, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Short-toed Lark: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Short-toed Lark has been recorded in 46 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (2%) in records to 2026. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in October.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
100% or more of visits
High
2% to 100%
Moderate
<1% to 2%
Low
under <1%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 0%<1%Insufficient records
February 13%<1%High
March 3%<1%Moderate
April 4%<1%Moderate
May 12%<1%Low
June 3%<1%Very high
July 0%<1%Low
August 5%<1%Very high
September 29%<1%Moderate
October 100%<1%Very high
November 24%<1%Very high
December 0%<1%Insufficient records

Squares with the highest reporting rate in October

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HP61Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HU35Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
NJ90Aberdeen City, Scotland100%Very high
NL94Argyll and Bute, Scotland100%Very high
SH39Isle of Anglesey, Wales100%Very high
SW65Cornwall, England100%Very high
TA41East Riding of Yorkshire, England100%Very high
TF63Norfolk, England100%Very high
TM58Suffolk, England100%Very high
NF09Na h-Eileanan Siar, Scotland25%High

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.