Lark Bunting
Learn to identify the Lark Bunting by ear. Master the "Sweet-sweet, ti-ti-ti, churrr!" phrase and tell it apart from similar species.
What the Lark Bunting sounds like
A lively, musical jumble of whistles, trills, and buzzy notes. Males deliver it from a fence post, low shrub, or during a fluttering display flight over the grass.
How to tell it apart
Where you'll hear it
Lark Buntings breed across the Great Plains and nearby western grasslands. They migrate south for winter, gathering in the southern U.S. and northern Mexico.
Look for it in open grasslands, shortgrass prairie, weedy fields, and shrub-speckled plains. It likes wide skies, low cover, and plenty of room to sing from a fence post or shrub.
Spring and summer are the showiest times, when males sing from exposed perches and make fluttery display flights over the prairie. In fall and winter, they often form loose flocks and can be much quieter and harder to pick out.
How to recognize it by sight
The Lark Bunting is a prairie specialist with two very different looks. Breeding males are jet black with a bold white wing patch that flashes in flight, while females and young birds blend right into the grass with warm brown streaks.
Similar species
Dickcissel
Dickcissels have a yellowish chest and, on males, a black bib rather than an all-black body.
Bobolink
Male Bobolinks are black and white too, but they have a pale back and buffy nape, not a solid black body.
Savannah Sparrow
Female and nonbreeding Lark Buntings can seem sparrow-like, but Savannah Sparrows are smaller with a shorter bill.