Smith's Longspur

These birds have a short cone-shaped bills, streaked backs, and dark tails with white outer retrices. In breeding state plumage , the male has pumpkin orange throat, nape, and underparts contrasting with an intricate black-and-white face pattern. The white lesser coverts are quite pronounced on a male in spring and early summer. Females and immatures have lightly-streaked buffy underparts, dark crowns, brown wings with less obvious white lesser coverts, and a light-colored face. The tail is identical at all ages.

The Smith's Longspur is classified as Least Concern. Does not qualify for a more at risk category. Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category.

The Smith's Longspur, Calcarius pictus, is a small ground-feeding bird from the family Emberizidae, which also contains the American sparrows. Contents - * 1 Overview * 2 References * 3 Further reading * 3.1 Book * 3. More

Smith's Longspur a Case of Neglect. Ontario Birds. vol 5, no 1. p. 2-20. * Sage BL. (1976). The Breeding Distribution of Smiths Longspur in Alaska. Condor. vol 78, no 1. p. 116-117. * Yee DG, Bailey SF & Deuel BE. (1991). The Autumn Migration August 1-November 30, 1990 Middle Pacific Coast Region USA. American Birds. vol 45, no 1. p. 145-149. More

* Audubon named the Smith's Longspur after his friend Gideon B. Smith. Longspur refers to the elongated claw of the hind toe. * Males are not territorial, but instead compete for fertilizations by copulating with females frequently in order to dilute or displace sperm from other males. More

Smith's Longspur, Calcaruis pictus Photo of Smith's Longspur. Smith's Longspur, showing wing pattern and white tail feathers. Photographed in Marshallville, Macon County, GA on Dec. 24, 2007. This photograph may only be used for educational purposes. It may not be used for commercial purposes or in publications without permission. Status: Accidental in winter, 24 Dec 2007-16 Jan 2008 at Marshallville Super Sod Farm (Macon) (Chambers, Walt). More

Smith's Longspur is often found in large feeding flocks at this time of year. Reproduction: The breeding system of this bird is one of the most unusual of any songbird. Smith's Longspurs are polygynandrous; that is, each female mates with two or three males. Each male, in turn, mates with multiple females. More

The breeding male Smith's Longspur head has white stripes above the eye and on the crown and a white patch on the sides of the neck and a short conical bill. They are streaked with brown above and are buff below appearing more yellowish than the picture to your left. The outer flight feathers are white and their white wingpatches are more visible during flight. Females as well as males during the winter are much duller and lack the striped head pattern. More

The Smith's Longspur is usually a rare migrant through the state as they move between their Arctic summering grounds and their wintering grounds on the southern Great Plains. They generally don't mingle with other longspurs or Horned Larks. They are known for their odd breeding behavior, in which males vigorously sing to attract females, but don't defend territories, are highly promiscuous, and often have nests of mixed parentage. More

Smith's Longspur Location 1 Location 2 is just east of Cone Marsh. The fields along here are sandy and there are frequently visible longspur flocks - both Smith's and Laplands. Fencerows sometimes offer perched birds which allow good scope views. More

The Smith's Longspur is the rarest and most sought after of the 4 longspurs. The nearest a few might be seen in winter is northeast of Austin. Actual flocks with dozens are no closer than the Dallas area. They usually show up in late November, and stay until early spring. There is a central TX coast record for Oct. 23, the earliest ever arrival in the state, and one of the furthest south ever. Another amazing record is for Big Bend. More

Smith's Longspur has a very restricted and localized winter distribution in Louisiana. First recorded in 1952, the known Louisiana winter range remains the extreme NW portion of the state in Caddo/Bossier parishes. It is found most winters in small numbers (flocks less than 50). Its winter distribution is apparently linked with that of three-awn grass (Aristidassp.), a native grass genus of the short-grass prairie. There are only two Louisiana records away from the Shreveport area: Natchitoches (Natchitoches Airport) and St. More

Smith's Longspur: Eats seeds, insects, and spiders on tundra. In winter, feeds mostly on seeds; forages on the ground. Readily Eats Safflower, Apple Slices, Suet, Millet, Peanut Kernels, Fruit Vocalization Smith's Longspur: Song is a series of rapid, melodious warbles ending in "wee-che!" Call is a dry, tickling rattle. Similar Species Smith's Longspur: Lapland Longspur has red-brown nape, white underparts streaked with black, and lacks white wing patch. More

This little plush Smith's Longspur is made by Wild Republic and is part of their Audubon Bird series. Smith's Longspur (Calcarius pictus) is about the size of a sparrow (6 inches) and is streaked dark brown above and buff below with a black crown and face with white supercilium and cheek spot, white shoulder patch and a black tail with white outer feathers. Females are duller without the head pattern. More

smith's longspur-Ron Teel Smith’s Longspur (c)Ron Teel This image was just sent to ABO from two of our very active members, Ron and Mary Teel. While birding along the Denali Highway they encontered this lovely, male, Smith’s Longspur. This species is a target for many birders visiting Alaska. Though common in parts of the Brooks Range they are rare in the interior. More

This Smith's Longspur is just one example of over 900 WhatBird.com illustrations available for licensing. All illustrations are hand drawn and provided in Photoshop 300 dpi, layered, 2400 x 3000 pixels, 24 bit color format. See below for available formats for this product. For custom or non standard uses of our of our illustrations go to this link and fill out the form at this link: http://www.whatbird.com/illustrationlicensing/ A representative will contact you within 48 hours. More

Smith's Longspur - These are found almost exclusively in relatively dense patches of mixed Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) and Three-Awn (Aristida sp.). Okay, so now that you know where to look, how do you (a) tell that you have longspurs, and (b) tell them apart? In flight, longspur flocks tend to be rather loose and disorganized. They're all going in pretty much the same direction, but without the single-mindedness of a flock of starlings or blackbirds. More

Smith's Longspur in North Carolina: "In mid-January, J. C. Crawford saw 6 birds digging through half a foot of snow on his farm near Statesville (Miss Anderson) to get at oats dropped from a drill; from a book illustration he determined them to be Smith's Longspurs." Doubts arose in my mind when I saw in the May, 1946 'Chat', North Carolina publication, the following note: "Lapland Longspurs at Statesville, North Carolina. J. C. More