Outdoor Ontario

Request for Information => Bird ID => Topic started by: Luv2Bird on February 27, 2010, 07:24:30 PM

Title: Snow Buntings and ? Horned Larks
Post by: Luv2Bird on February 27, 2010, 07:24:30 PM

Are the birds with the yellow throat and dark mask - Horned Larks?  They were among all the Snow Buntings ..
- are all the ones with the light orange breast band - males? The lighting was very poor as it was quite cloudy and snowing.
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4015/4392871913_a212a5a67e_b.jpg)

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Post by: RKD on February 27, 2010, 07:48:52 PM

Having never seen Horned Larks I can't tell you for sure but according to the Peterson guide yes they are Horned Larks. Neither the Peterson guide nor my Smithsonian guides depict the Snow bunting with that distinct orange stipe so can't answer that question.

Love you photo though, what a great party they are having!!

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Post by: Luv2Bird on February 27, 2010, 11:57:43 PM

Thanks RKD .. I had never seen either bird before either and consulted the Cornell labs of Ornithology site .. which is where I found the Horned Lark  .. since it was listed as a related bird to the snow buntings.  
There were flcoks of them. They are very fast. They would land for a while and when a car drove by they would all take off at once.  

I agree that I did not see any examples of Snow Buntings with the distictvie orange neck band. I find that there are never enough pictures showing differences in colours between males, females , juveniles and summer / winter plumage, which makes ID quite challenging.  Hopefully others will comment.

Glad you liked the shot. I have another of them all arriving too. I'm not very good at bird photography and with the snow and clouds it was difficult to get a really clear shot.

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Post by: BC on February 28, 2010, 12:23:47 AM

You've definitely got Horned Larks and Snow Buntings in the shot. Also, if you look at the extreme left centre of the photo you have a Lapland Longspur. A bonus!

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Post by: Kin Lau on February 28, 2010, 03:07:10 AM

Quote from: "BC"

You've definitely got Horned Larks and Snow Buntings in the shot. Also, if you look at the extreme left centre of the photo you have a Lapland Longspur. A bonus!

Ditto... the Lapland Longspur is much harder to get.

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Post by: Luv2Bird on February 28, 2010, 11:23:11 AM

WOW  .. BC .. you have a good eye! Thanks for identifying the Lapland Longspur. Lucky that I happened to choose that shot.  I went through all the pics (over 100) that I took and lo n behold ..I found a good shot of the Lapland Longspur. Will post in the bird photo corner shortly .. along with the Bunting and Longspur pics.

Thanks a mill ... BC and Kin Lau

Title: 3 birdies
Post by: jerjack on February 28, 2010, 12:33:03 PM

wow all 3 in one shot,,grats