Its common name commemorates the English zoologist William Thomas Blanford.

The underparts are pale and plain apart from a small dark patch on the side of the neck made up of vertical streaks.

The greater short-toed lark is similar but has a greyer, more-streaked crown.

The song is given in a circular song-flight and includes a mixture of chew-chew-chew-chew notes and fluid phrases.

In Arabia, it breeds between 1800 and 2500 metres above sea-level with some birds dispersing to lower ground in winter.