The Eurasian skylark isn't the flashiest bird to behold, but its courtship song packs a melodic punch.
During the breeding season, male skylarks will take off from the ground and fly up in a steep spiral. Once they are a few hundred in the air, they hover and circle for several minutes, energetically singing and fluttering their wings the entire time.
A skylark once captured the attention of English Romantic poet Percy Shelley while he was on a walk with his wife, Mary Shelley, in Italy. He detailed the experience in his ode "To a Skylark," published in 1820.
Here in Hawaiʻi, you're most likely to hear a singing skylark in the high-elevation grasslands of Maunakea, Maunaloa, and Haleakalā.
Audio credit: LOHE Bioacoustics Lab
