Ihara UcDIUAB O No .BiUsL LB Ten 13 
Lark Bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys) 
By Anna C. Ames 
THE LARK BUNTING, state bird of Colorado, is unlike other buntings in 
that the late fall and winter plumage of the adult male differs almost 
completely from his summer dress. During his nesting period in the north 
he is black, with conspicuous white blotches on the wing and white edgings 
on the wing and tail coverts and under-tail feathers. The female is brown, 
streaked with dusky; her white wingpatch is smaller than that of the 
male and sometimes absent. During migration the dark feathers of the 
male become brown through “feather wear.” In winter the color pattern 
of both sexes is predominantly gray or grayish-brown; they look practic- 
ally the same except that the male retains a black chin. Lark Buntings are 
from 5% to 7 inches in length. 
The song of the Lark Bunting is sweet and trilling, varied and bril- 
liant, and is often poured out when the bird is on the wing. Also, the bird 
may sing with others of his kind perched on weed stalks. Lark Buntings 
sing not only during the breeding season, but also on their migratory 
flights. They are masters of blended song, and in their spring song festi- 
vals surpass the music of Redwinged Blackbirds and the Meadowlarks. 
Hundreds of birds may take part in this musical activity and he so in- 
spired that the performance lasts for hours. A mass of the birds may 
move across a flower-bedecked valley or prairie, the rear members continu- 
ously vaulting over the advance group of the procession while “delivering 
blended chimes unexcelled by any other avian choir.” 
Lark Buntings are gregarious — very — and their summer and win- 
ter distribution is unpredictable. They are more mobile and erratic in their 
movements than most birds. In summer favorable moisture conditions de- 
termine their presence or absence. They migrate in large flocks, and in 
fall and winter may appear almost anywhere, usually at lower altitudes. 
At such times they may damage some crops such as maize. However, any 
harm they may do is offset by the fact that they destroy vast quantities of 
injurious insects. Also, it is probably true that the buntings are some- 
times blamed for the depredations of hordes of English Sparrows, Red- 
winged Blackbirds, etc. In some places it has been found that 78% of the 
food of Lark Buntings consists of grasshoppers. In some portions of their 
winter range they feed largely on insects as well as on weed seeds. 
The buntings congregate in flocks of thousands to move southward. 
“Even when foraging for food they fly wing-tip to wing-tip, creating an 
audible rustle which may be heard for hundreds of feet.’’ Their white 
patches give the birds a curious flickering appearance as they fly. They 
are commonly said to swirl or whirl about. They stay out in a high wind 
and seem to enjoy it. When they migrate to the southwestern part of the 
country they are not at all shy, but friendly and rather curious about hu- 
mans and animals. As they fly over in flocks they utter a cherry, sweet 
“los-ee,” distinctive of the bird and very attractive. 
Lark Buntings breed in the high, dry, rolling, and treeless plains and 
prairie bluffs of the West, in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, eastern New 
Mexico, and northwest Texas, east to Minnesota and southeastern Ne- 
braska. Occasionally they are seen farther east in migration. They avoid 
the lowlands. Buntings winter in south Texas, Arizona, and the deserts 
of southeastern California to central Mexico. They appear accidentally 
in migration in both West and East Coast States. 
