#longspur

Chestnut-collared Longspur (Calcarius ornatus), male, family Calcariidae, order Passeriformes, Pawnee Grasslands, Northern CO, USA

Longspurs and Snow Buntings, now in their own family together, were once in the Emberizidae (old world sparrows, buntings, and some finches), along with the new world sparrows.

Both groups were split off the Emberezidae in the 2010s.

Longspurs are actually not that closely related to sparrows of either continent, as was once thought, and are actually more closely related to the cardinal and tanager families.

HEY **CENSORED**, DRAW MORE BIRDS!!

Chestnut-collared Longspur (Calcarius ornatus)

Central prairies in Canada, USA, Mexico

Status: Vulnerable (IUCN), Endangered in Canada

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Photo: Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith

"Found throughout the Arctic zones of Europe, Asia, and North America in summer, this is one of the most abundant breeding birds of the far North. Birders who visit the tundra in summer will find Lapland Longspurs very common almost everywhere there, the bright males singing their short warbling songs from hummocks or rocks or while flying. In winter the birds come south in flocks, to forage in windswept fields. Although they range widely across the continent, the vast majority winter on the Great Plains, where flocks in the thousands seem to reflect the abundance of the species on its northern nesting grounds."