Species

Horned lark

Eremophila alpestris

A ground-dwelling songbird with tiny black 'horns', living on bare fields and airports in Georgia.

Photo Dan Vickers (opens in a new tab) / iNaturalist, CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab)

At a glance

Size: About 16 to 20 cm long
Weight: About 28 to 40 g
Habitat: Bare fields, ploughed land, airports and short turf
Diet: Seeds and insects
In Georgia: An uncommon resident in open farmland; more in winter
Voice: A high, tinkling song; a thin "tsee-titi" call
Rabies vector: No

Identification

Key marks: Brown above; black mask and breast band; yellow or white face; tiny black feather "horns" on males
Told apart from: American pipit, which is slim with no black face markings
Told apart from: Lapland longspur, which has a rusty nape in some plumages and a streaked back
Where to look: Bare fields, especially in winter

Behaviour

Horned larks walk rather than hop, feeding on seeds on bare ground. Males sing in high display flights, then dive back to earth.

Why they matter

Horned larks are one of the few songbirds adapted to wide, open, bare ground. They have declined across North America as farming practices changed, and they depend on large open fields.

Reproduction and lifecycle

Nest — A depression on bare ground lined with grass
Eggs — Usually three or four
Incubation — About 11 to 12 days
Chicks — Leave the nest at about 10 days, before they can fly
Flight — At about 15 days
Lifespan — Several years

Living around people

Early ploughing and mowing destroy ground nests.

Misconceptions

Larks live only in Europe. The horned lark is North America's only native lark.

Related species

Seasonal activity

When this species is breeding, and when there are nests on the ground. Mowing during the shaded months is how most nests are found.

Breeding and active nests by month for this species
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Breeding	Jan: no	Feb: no	Mar: no	Apr: no	May: no	Jun: no	Jul: no	Aug: no	Sep: no	Oct: no	Nov: no	Dec: no
Active nests	Jan: no	Feb: no	Mar: no	Apr: no	May: no	Jun: no	Jul: no	Aug: no	Sep: no	Oct: no	Nov: no	Dec: no
Notes	Flocks in fields	Pairs singing	Nesting begins	Nesting	Chicks	Second broods	Young fledging	Present	Present	Flocks forming	Flocks	Flocks

Where it lives

Recorded in 80 states and provinces. Each one links to the other animals there, and to the rehabilitators licensed for them.

Canada

Mexico

If you found one

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