The genus name, Calandrella, is a diminutive of kalandros, the calandra lark, and brachydactila is from brakhus, "short", and daktulos, "toe".

The greater short-toed lark was described by the German naturalist Johann Leisler in 1814 and given the binomial name Alauda brachydactila.

[4] The specific name brachydactyla is from the Ancient Greek βραχυδακτυλος brakhudaktulos "short-toed" from brakhus "short" and daktulos "toe".

The specimens were collected at the foot of Mount Hermon, Lebanon in June 1864 by Canon Henry Baker Tristram.

The nominate form breeds in Europe (Iberia, France, Italy, the Balkans and Romania) and winters in Africa.

Subspecies longipennis breeds in Ukraine, Mongolia and Manchuria and winters in South Asia mainly in the drier zone of north-western India.

In the evenings they roost in open ground, with each bird squatting in a small depression made in the soil.

[11] They visit parts of South Asia in large flocks during winter and are sometimes attracted to short grass areas along aerodromes and become a bird strike risk to aircraft.

Although the population trend appears to be decreasing, the rate of decline is not considered sufficiently rapid to warrant a threatened status.