Skylark or pipit, it can be hard to tell. They’re both streaky brown birds, roughly the same size, who like hanging out in the same habitats. Pipits are more strongly striped, and the dark stripe through the eye generally distinguishes it from the skylark. But how do you tell unless you have them side by side? I was leaning towards skylark (Alauda arvensis) because I’m pretty sure this can in no way be called a strong eye stripe, but nzbirdsonline.org.nz gives more hints. Skylarks crouch and fly when disturbed (as opposed to the walking or running behaviour of pipits) and the photo caught this skylark as he was starting to crouch. And fly.
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