Like most larks, often inconspicuous on the ground and best detected by voice. The prolonged warbling and trilling song is given in flight, often so far overhead that the bird appears as a speck, if you can even see it. On the ground, note brown streaky plumage, distinct bushy crest, and broad, diffuse paler eyering. Chunkier than pipits, and does not habitually bob its rear end. In flight shows white sides to tail and narrow white trailing edge to wings. A denizen of open country, especially rough grassland, heathland, farmland, and airports.