Lark Sparrow

The Lark Sparrow is one of the most distinctively patterned sparrows in North America, with a bold chestnut, black, and white harlequin face pattern unlike any other native sparrow: chestnut cheek and crown patches divided by white stripes, with a black whisker mark and a small dark central breast spot on an otherwise clean white underside.

The tail is notably long, dark, and rounded, edged with bold white corners that flash conspicuously in flight, a useful field mark even when the bird is too far away to see facial details clearly.

Key field marks

• Chestnut-and-white harlequin facial pattern with black eye-line and whisker mark
• Clean white underparts with a single small dark central breast spot
• Long, rounded, dark tail with bold white corners, prominent in flight
• Streaked brown-and-black back

Similar species

• No other common North American sparrow shares this bold facial pattern; the combination of chestnut ear patch, white stripes, and a rounded white-cornered tail is essentially unique.
• At a distance in flight, the white-edged tail might suggest a junco, but Lark Sparrows are larger, streakier above, and lack a junco's contrasting hood.

Lark Sparrows breed across much of the central and western United States, from the Great Plains and Midwest through the Great Basin and California, favoring open grasslands with scattered shrubs, trees, or fence lines, as well as savanna, orchards, and agricultural edges. A smaller population also occurs locally in parts of the eastern US, though it has declined and disappeared from many former eastern sites.

The species winters across the southern United States and Mexico, in similarly open habitats, and is a medium- to long-distance migrant, with populations showing notable long-term declines linked to loss of open grassland and savanna habitat.

Lark Sparrows forage on the ground in open areas, walking and hopping to glean seeds and insects, and are often seen perched prominently on fences, shrubs, or low trees, less skulking than many grassland sparrows.

The song is notably varied and musical for a sparrow, combining clear whistles, buzzy trills, and rich warbled phrases, sometimes incorporating pauses, and males perform an elaborate courtship display involving strutting with drooped wings and a fanned tail. Diet includes insects and seeds. Nests are usually built on the ground in a shallow depression, sometimes low in a shrub, with typical clutches of three to five eggs.