Horned Lark
The Horned Lark is one of the earliest North American birds to begin nesting each year. Birds in the southern part of the range nest as early as late February. In the northern United States, nesting may get underway in March, although nests may fail after a heavy snowfall.

The Horned Lark inhabits North America, northern Europe and Asia. Many subspecies are recognized based on the great variation in plumage. The northeastern race is relatively large and dark; males have more yellow on their head and faint streaking on the breast. Northeastern Horned Larks breed in exposed arctic habitats and winter in the eastern United States, occasionally as far south as the Carolinas. There they may join large flocks with Snow Buntings, longspurs, and other races of Horned Larks.
Horned Lark Range Map

The midwestern race, sometimes called the Prairie Horned Lark, occurs in the midwestern United States and breeds as far north as southern Canada. Less migratory than the Northern Horned Lark, it vacates the northern part of its range for a few months in winter. Prairie Horned Larks have benefited from deforestation and expansion of cultivated land in the eastern United States. The range has expanded eastward from Michigan through southern Ontario to New York and New England and south to Maryland and Virginia. Favorable habitat includes barren or semi-barren habitats on dry prairies, cultivated fields, and bare ground at the edges of airport runways or golf courses. The males of this race tend to have a white instead of yellow supercilium.

A number of races occur in the arid West. Those in the interior tend to be lighter and grayish without streaking. In the gravelly prairies of the Pacific coast of Washington and Oregon, Horned Larks have heavily streaked breasts, bright yellow faces and brownish backs. Farther south in salt-grass pastures and other dry areas of central California, Horned Larks are similar but they have unstreaked breast plumage.

Ground-loving birds, Horned Larks rarely perch on anything higher than corn stubble or a clump of earth. They walk over the ground in search of insects, especially adults and larval lepidoptera, ants, wasps, bugs and spiders in summer. They eat weed seeds, grain, and small fruits throughout the year.

The male Horned Lark engages in a spectacular song flight, rising hundreds of feet in the air to sing while circling for up to several minutes. At the end of the display he plummets with closed wings nearly to the ground before spreading his wings to alight. The tinkling song is a thin rapid warble, "tsip, tsip tsee, didididi." A commonly heard flight call is a two-syllable "see-tu, see-tu."

Horned Larks place their nests in shallow depressions scratched out of bare earth. A typical nest site is sheltered from the prevailing wind by a clump of grass or clod of earth. Horned Larks line the cup of grass and plant stems with plant down and hair. In the north they may use reindeer moss. Sometimes they construct a "pavement" of pebbles surrounding the nest or to one side of it. Nestlings are well-camouflaged with long down. They leave the nest about three to five days before they can fly. Relying on their protective coloring, they freeze when threatened.

Description: Horned Larks are slender, medium-sized (7"-7 1/2") songbirds. They have long wings and square-tipped tails. They range from grayish to rusty brown above. They have white breasts and bellies, and a variable amount of streaking on the breast. The head is strongly patterned with a black mask from the bill extending just under the eye to the cheek. Horned Larks have a white or yellow supercilium with a black line above connected to two tiny black "horns." Below the white or yellow throat is a broad black breast band. The tail is dark with white edged outer feathers, and a brown center.

Females of all races are similar to males, but are duller, with gray instead of black markings.


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