August 21st, 2005. East Meadows, Northampton, MA.
| Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris, juvenile.
| It
will come as no great surprise to the majority of experienced birders
the mystery passerine reported in the East Meadows at Northampton on
August 21st , was
identified as a juvenile Horned Lark. I received 17 email opinions on
the identification of this bird, 15 of which were in favor of Horned
Lark. Two others were undecided but one considered juvenile Lapland
Lonspur and the other was a simple “I don’t know”. The birder thinking
about the Longspur later changed his opinion to juvenile Horned Lark.
Some interesting feedback came as a result of posting the images. Three
birders mentioned that Horned Larks in juvenile plumage have been
misidentified as Sprague’s Pipits in years gone by. Other thoughts
focused on the possibilty that the breeding of Horned Larks had almost
certainly taken place in the East Meadows, or very close to that area,
making for a very interesting local record.
Although other juvenile Horned Larks were present in the meadows at the
same time as this bird, this indivdual could be distinguished from
them. I can only assume that the tail appeared shorter because the
retrices were still growing. I also noted that the bill was a different
color and slightly different shape to the adults being more pale-horn
colored, rather than dark-tipped gray as in the adults. Again, it was a
struggle to find reference to this in the standard field guides but
eventually I came across a very good illustration which matched the
features shown by this bird in the East Meadows. Killian Mullarney gives an
excellent redention of juvenile Horned Lark, including the pale bill,
on p.239 of the “Birds of Europe” by Princeton Field Guides. This best
resembles the bird that I photographed in the East Meadows.
Naturally, this does seem to be the only lark/longspur type species
likely to occur in Western Massachusetts in late August retaining fresh
juvenile plumage.
I’m very grateful to everyone who responded and offered an opinion. By
the end of the morning, after the watching the bird for some time with
Scott Surner and Val Miller, I was also quite satisfied that this bird
was a Horned Lark. However, I felt that it’s striking appearance was
worth highlighting, and it was great to receive some excellent feedback.
Good birding,
James P. Smith
Amherst, MA.
| | Taken using Canon Powershot A-95 through Swarovski HD telescope. |
|
