What type of bird is Percy Shelley describing in his poem when he says: "Hail to thee, blithe spirit!"?

Percy Shelley was describing a skylark when he made his noteworthy observation. It was done in "To a Skylark" a poem written by Percy Shelley. This poem was published in June 1820 by Charles and James Collier in London. This poem and Shelley's lyrical drama Prometheus Unbound were distributed to the public at the same time.

It was specifically inspired by an evening walk in the country near Livorno, Italy. With his wife Mary Shelley, Shelley describes the appearance and song of a skylark that they actually observed in their outside setting. He uses the moment to compare the skylark's experience of joy to the way humans experience joy.

Mary Shelley described the event that inspired Shelley to write "To a Skylark": "In the Spring we spent a week or two near Leghorn (Livorno) ... It was on a beautiful summer evening while wandering among the lanes whose myrtle hedges were the bowers of the fire flies, that we heard the caroling of the skylark."