About 1,500 people have participated in the election of the Bird of the Year through the SEO/BirdLife website. On this occasion, the Dupont’s Lark has been chosen, a species listed as endangered in the Red Book of Birds of Spain that is only found in the steppes of Spain and North Africa.

Among the three candidates who were running, the Alondra Ricotí managed to win by a very narrow margin (660 votes, 44%), over her immediate opponent, the Barn Swallow (641 votes, 43%), while the Houbara Bustard, obtained 187 votes (12%). Since 1989 SEO/BirdLife has declared a Bird of the Year, but this is the first time it has been chosen by popular vote over the Internet. The Bird of the Year, throughout all editions, has highlighted the main threats suffered by the species chosen as such, from our avifauna

The Duponti’s Lark (Chresophilus duponti) is a small bird with a distribution restricted to the Western Palearctic with populations exclusively in North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. In Europe, 100% of the population is exclusively in Spain. In our country it is only distributed in 8 Autonomous Communities; Castilla y León, Aragon, Navarra, Castilla La Mancha, Andalusia, Murcia, Valencia and Catalonia. It is in the Iberian System and the Ebro depression where most of the populations are found.

Listed in the Red Book of Birds of Spain as endangered. The main threats to the population are habitat destruction and loss, which together with the small size and fragmentation of its population have led to its current decline. In Spain, there are less than 2,000 pairs threatened by changes in land use, the construction of infrastructures and above all the current expansion of Wind Farms whose optimal installation sites coincide with the habitat of the Dupontine Lark.

This species needs very strict conditions in terms of habitat, it is only present in flat areas or with a low slope with low vegetation of scrub of thyme and gorse. The characteristics of its cryptic plumage with the environment, its habit of running through bushes instead of flying long distances and its elusive behavior make it a species that is difficult to observe in the wild.