Scientific Name:   Eremophila alpestris)

Length:   6.3-7.9 in (16-20 cm)

Weight:   1.0-1.7 oz (28-48 g)

Wingspan:   11.8-13.4 in (30-34 cm)

Nest:   The nest is slight depression in ground, lined with grass, weeds, rootlets, with inner lining of fine grass or plant down. Using fine grasses, cornstalks, small roots, and other plant material and lines it with down, fur, feathers, and occasionally lint. It has been noted that the female often adds a “doorstep” of pebbles, corncobs, or dung on one side of the nest.

Eggs:   3-4, sometimes 2-5. Pale gray to greenish white, blotched and spotted with brown. Incubation is by female, about 10-12 days.

Feeding Behavior:   They creep along bare ground searching for small seeds and insects, entirely by walking and running on the ground, picking up items from ground or from plants low enough to reach. Insects are also eaten, especially in summer, when they may make up half of the total diet, spiders and snails, and eats berries of low-growing plants in some regions.

Young:   Fed by both parents. Young may leave nest after 9-12 days, not able to fly for another week. 1 brood per year in far north, 2-3 farther south.

Range:   Present all year in most areas from southern Canada south; some are probably permanent residents. They breed across much of North America from the high Arctic, northernmost Europe and Asia and in the mountains of southeast Europe. There is also an isolated population on a plateau in Colombia.

Brief Description:   Horned Larks are small, long-bodied songbirds that usually adopt a horizontal posture. Male Horned Larks are sandy to rusty brown above, with a black chest band, a curving black mask, and head stripes that extend to the back of the head. The underparts are white. Females have similar head and breast patterns but are less crisply defined.