Horned Lark

Several high, tinkling notes finish in a quick, bouncy jumble.

Year-round resident through much of the western and central United States and northern Mexico; summer breeder across Canada, Alaska and high mountains, withdrawing southward or to lower elevations in winter.

Short-grass prairies, plowed fields, pastures, deserts, alpine tundra, beaches, airport runways and other sparsely vegetated expanses across the Northern Hemisphere.

Begins courtship in late winter; nests on the ground from March through July, often raising two broods. Forms large, loose flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixing with longspurs and buntings.

The Horned Lark is a small, ground-dwelling songbird of wide-open spaces, named for the tiny black feather tufts (“horns”) that adorn the male’s crown in breeding plumage. Sandy-brown above and pale below, it sports a yellow throat and face bordered by a crisp black mask and breast-band. Adapted to life on the ground, it walks rather than hops and often blends seamlessly with the soil and stubble it frequents.