FOAM LAKE
BIRDING
No. 168
Our feeders
continue to be very busy with swarms of Redpolls in our backyard that outnumber
all other birds even the House Sparrows.
Although nothing as exciting as a Boreal Owl has come to our yard
recently, we were pleasantly surprised by a Pine Siskin at our nyjer (thistle
seed) feeder. In our area Pine Siskins
are migratory but are year round residents in the southern part of our province
so, seeing one at our feeders in the winter is uncommon but not rare. How long this particular bird has been in our
yard is anybody's guess as Siskins are quite similar to Redpolls and are easily
overlooked.
The middle
of February brings with it our very first summer resident, the Horned Lark, a
member of the lark family that includes the pipits and the famed European
Skylark among others. This early arrival
of the Horned Larks precedes the arrival of the rest of the summer birds like
crows and bluebirds by a month or so. To
me there is something reassuring about Horned Larks twittering on a warm and
sunny February day as they fly overhead.
Furthermore, seeing pairs of Horned Larks feeding on the shoulders of
our roads while there still is lots of snow in the fields tells me that spring
must be on the way. By the end of March,
regardless of the snow on the ground, nesting is well on the way. In my mind the arrival of the Horned Lark
beats the groundhog thing on February 2 hands down.
Horned
Larks are circumpolar in distribution with birds from different areas having
slightly different field marks resulting in at least seven different recognizable
subspecies in North America alone. In Canada all are birds of wide open
spaces nesting on either side of the Boreal Forest on the plains and Tundra and
migrating a little bit to the south in the winter. On the rest of the continent they live year
round in all of the United States
and most of Mexico
where there is suitable habitat.
Locally, they are found in undisturbed grassy areas like pastures and
roadside ditches but are absent in cultivated fields. With the decrease in mixed farming and
subsequent increase in crop farming the Horned Lark population has declined in
the parkland area, however, in the southern grasslands the populations are
healthy.
The Horned
Lark gets its name from the small feathery tufts on either side of its head
that vaguely resemble little horns although many of the subspecies do not have
any "horns" at all. All the
birds do have broad black "sideburns" or masks that extend from the
eye downward to the lower chin and a prominent black breast band much like that
of a Killdeer. Some of the subspecies,
including the local ones, have yellow throats.
It has a weak but pleasant tinkling song that it often produces while
circling in a slow fluttering flight (larking) although it also sings from a
perch such as a fencepost. Once heard
the song is easily remembered and recognized.
Males and females are more or less the same with the females being a bit
more drab and not sporting any "horns".
This week's
pictures, one of a male and another of a female, were taken two years ago near Coronach, Saskatchewan. Except for the "horns" on the male which
are barely visible the field marks are very clear. (Obviously, the yellow throat markings will
not be visible in black and white.) Now, which is the female and which is the
male?
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