Lark Bunting

Status: Nation-wide surveys show a significant decline over the past 30 years, including in Colorado, where it is the state bird.

Habitat/Range: The Lark bunting breeds in plains, prairies, meadows and sagebrush in south-central Canada, southeastern North Dakota, eastern New Mexico, northern Texas, western Oklahoma, eastern Kansas and northwestern Missouri. Non-breeding range is central California, southern Nevada, central Arizona, southern New Mexico, central to southern Texas, southwestern Kansas, western Oklahoma, and northern Mexico.

Threats: Brown-headed cowbirds parasitize nests. Pesticides, used to control grasshoppers, have also resulted in deaths.

Restoration Potential: Protecting open prairie from plowing and cultivation is essential to restoration.

Places We Are Protecting:

• Saltillo Grasslands Protected Area, Mexico
• Janos Grasslands, Mexico
• Bohart Ranch/Chico Basin, Colorado
• Western High Plains/Pawnee National Grasslands, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska
• Fox Ranch/ Arikaree River, Colorado
• Smokey Valley Ranch/Chalk Bluffs, Kansas
• Cherry Ranch/Sioux Prairie, Nebraska

Learn More:
View a species management abstract for this bird.

Illustrations by David Allen Sibley from The National Audubon Society: The Sibley Guide to Birds published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. Copyright © 2000 by Chanticleer Press and David Allen Sibley. No illustrations may be copied, reproduced, or reused without the express written permission of the copyright holders.