Plateau Lark

The plateau lark (Corypha nigrescens) is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae found in east Zambia, north Malawi and south Tanzania. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the rufous-naped lark. == Taxonomy == The plateau lark was formally described in 1900 by the German ornithologist Anton Reichenow based on a specimen collected in Tanzania north of Lake Malawi on the Kitulo Plateau. He considered it to be a subspecies of the rufous-naped lark and coined the trinomial name Mirafra africana nigrescens. The specific epithet is from Latin nigrescens, nigrescentis meaning "blackish". The plateau lark is now treated as a separate species and placed in the genus Corypha. This is based on the results of two molecular phylogenetic studies by a group of ornithologists led by Per Alström that were published in 2023 and 2024. Two subspecies are recognised: C. n. nigrescens (Reichenow, 1900) – northeast Zambia and south Tanzania C. n. nyikae (Benson, 1939) – east Zambia, north Malawi and southwest Tanzania