Logically enough, aerial display is most frequent in birds of open country, where elevated songposts are scarce or absent, and flight song is common across a vast range of species, from shorebirds to sparrows.

The larks are among the most famous of sky singers. And of the larks, none is better known than the Eurasian Skylark, a bird that calls up cultural memories even for those who haven’t yet seen this blithe spirit in life.

The typical song flight of a Skylark lasts for about three minutes, an astoundingly long time for a bird to be in the air and not going anywhere. But the record is held by a bird in Britain said to have sung for sixty-eight minutes before finally dropping to earth.

With the exception of Antarctica, every continent has its larks. The family attains its greatest diversity in Africa, where it is thought to have originated; Ethiopia and South Africa are especially lark-bountiful, with some 65 species between them, including many endemics.

Sprague’s Pipit is just as long-winded. Birds of North America Online cites one example of a bird whose “display bout” lasted for nearly three hours; it isn’t clear from that source whether that was a single display flight, but it must have been an impressive performance in any case.

Thanks to Ted Floyd and Ron Martin for the pointer to Sprague’s Pipit.