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Black-crowned Sparrow-larks are the smallest larks in Eurasia. They have a proportionally large head and bill. Their plumage is dimorphic, i.e. males and females are different. Male Black-crowned Sparrow-larks are in fact not quite black, but dark chocolate-brown. Apart from the grey frons and ear coverts, the head, neck and underparts, from chin to tail, are all that dark shade of brown. The nape of the neck, back and rump are grey. The wings are grey, with darker grey central chevrons on the coverts. The uppertail is also grey. In-flight the entire body and the underwing coverts are dark-brown; only the flight feathers are grey. Females have an off-white to light-creamy front and a narrow off-white neck band. The rest of the head and the back are light grey-brown, streaked with grey. The wing coverts are also light grey-brown, with dark centres. The flight feathers are dark-grey with wide light grey-brown edges. The irises of both sexes are dark. The strong, triangular bill is grey; legs and feet are greyish-pink. Juveniles resemble females with somewhat paler colours yet.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Black-crowned Sparrow-lark is available HERE .

Black-crowned Sparrow-larks occur from the Canary Islands in the West, through the southern fringe of the Sahara desert in Africa, via parts of Egypt and of the Middle East, parts of Arabia and along the southern coastal fringe of Asia to the border region of Pakistan with India.

Apart from a few patches in central Saudi Arabia, Black-crowned Sparrow-larks populate only the (near-)coastal fringe of the Arabian peninsula, from about Jeddah in the West, through southern Saudi Arabia, all of the Yemeni coastline and on via Oman into the UAE, as far as about Bahrain.

Black-crowned Sparrow-larks specialize in life on the fringes of deserts, in relatively open, semi-arid habitats.

Black-crowned Sparrow-larks were first spotted by us at Ras Al-Hadd, near the eastern tip of Oman, in May 2010.

Later in May 2010 this species was also observed near Sohar, some 200 km West of Muscat.