Lark Sparrow

About the Lark Sparrow

The Lark Sparrow is the sparrow for people who think all sparrows look alike. No other North American sparrow wears its face pattern: bold chestnut, black, and white stripes arranged like a painted harlequin mask, set off by a clean white breast with a single dark stickpin spot.

It is a bird of open Texas country - pastures with scattered mesquite, field edges, ranch roads - where it feeds on the ground in loose flocks and flies up to fence wires when disturbed, flashing white corners on a long, rounded tail.

Males court with more flair than the family usually allows: strutting on the ground with tail spread and wings drooped, almost turkey-like, while singing a long, jumbled series of trills, buzzes, and clear notes that early naturalists compared to a lark - hence the name.

Lark Sparrows are also famous nest recyclers, frequently laying their eggs in old mockingbird or thrasher nests instead of building fresh. Common across most of the state in the warm months, they are one of the easiest handsome birds in Texas to see well - park on a ranch road, wait by a fence line, and one will usually present itself.