The Eurasian skylark (Alauda arvensis) is a well-known bird that in spring delights us with its tireless singing. It is somewhat larger and stockier than a sparrow, its length ranging from 16 to 18 cm. In coloration it also resembles a female domestic sparrow. Its belly is dirty white, its back grayish brown and distinctly longitudinally striped. These stripes extend also to its breast and flanks. If we scare it, it, fluttering low over the ground, retreats not far away. During this short flight we can observe the characteristic white outer edge of its tail. We will hear the Eurasian skylark far more often than see it. The male is a tireless singer, who begins his tune at dawn and, in good weather, continues it all day until evening. In parts of its song it even imitates the white wagtail, the barn swallow, and the sand martin. He loves to sing as he slowly rises higher and higher and finally stops even up to over 100 m high, shrilling while hovering in place. Then, still singing, he descends again toward the ground, a few metres above the ground he becomes silent, folds his wings, and falls to the earth like a stone.
The Eurasian skylark is a staple presence that, before severe frost, exceptionally withdraws to snow-free places. The birds that live here in winter are thus joined by those skylarks that breed in northern Europe. It pays little attention to nest-building. The cavity it digs in the ground it lines with a little soft grass. That is all it needs. The female incubates alone and after two weeks the young hatch from the grayish eggs, and soon leave the nest. The mother then feeds them outside the nest until they are able to fly. It lives in open cultivated countryside, on fields and meadows. In the warm part of the year it feeds on insects and other terrestrial invertebrates, and in the colder part of the year mainly on seeds. In autumn, Eurasian skylarks like to gather in large flocks, mingle on harvested fields, and fly from stubble to stubble.
In Slovenia the Eurasian skylark is a common nesting bird and an important part of the cultural landscape. In the book Domestic and Foreign Animals in Pictures, by Frane Erjavec, we read: "A man can hardly imagine a beautiful spring day without the skylark's song; without it our fields would be dead and dull." The European population of the Eurasian skylark is also extremely large, as it is estimated at more than 40,000,000 pairs, but since the 1970s to the present it has undergone a large decline. It is primarily threatened by the reduction of its habitat due to the encroachment of open grassy and arable surfaces caused by the abandonment of farming.
