Before the second batch of snow arrived on Friday and Saturday, Jill and I drove just outside of the city to try to find some Snow Buntings. We didn’t have any luck, but we did find hundreds of Horned Larks.
I get a kick out of these funny little birds. They sing when they fly which reminds me of Bobolinks. The song is described as a “high tinkling sound” and it draws attention because most birds don’t vocalize much in the winter. They save their singing for the breeding season.
Horned Larks hang out in large flocks and forage for seeds in agricultural fields. They have a quirky way of moving around on the ground that helps me quickly identify them.
While males have a noticeable black mask, from a distance all you really see is little brown blobs.
Up close you can see their little “horns” which are just feathers that stick up from the sides of their heads:
We found numerous flocks of Horned Larks on several rural roads. Some birds were in the fields and others were on the sides of the road or even in the road. When a car would pass, they would rise up together, fly around a field and then often return right back to where they were foraging.
