Lark Bunting in breeding plumage

One of my favourite Saskatchewan grassland birds is the Lark Bunting — perhaps because the males look so formally attired in their crisp black and white breeding plumage.

The female Lark Buntings are also lovely, with an intricate brown feather pattern.

These small songbirds were fairly common in the Val Marie, Saskatchewan, area during our recent Prairie Passages Tour of pastures and grasslands. Especially lovely to see, knowing that come winter, they'll change from this bright plumage to more drab brown feathers again. (And leave Saskatchewan to fly south to Mexico for the winter.)

Male Lark Bunting in breeding plumage   © SB

What are these birds? Lark Buntings  —  male in breeding plumage.
Location: Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan. 

Photo date:  June 26, 2013.

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Lark Bunting: Male, Female and Molting Plumage

Lark Buntings watched from fence posts as I drove through prairie pasture land along a township road south of Regina, Saskatchewan.

The male Lark Bunting in breeding plumage was the easiest to identify. Black, with a bluish bill and white wing flashes, this bird stands out from other tiny brown-striped grassland birds.

Lark Bunting in Saskatchewan.   © SB

The female Lark Bunting was also fine to ID — as soon as she pirouetted through a turn to show that she, too, had white wing flashes. And what a fine grasshopper! The other females of this species that I saw also had insects in their beaks. Great hunters!

Female Lark Bunting with Grasshopper. Saskatchewan  © SB

But this final Lark Bunting, a moulting male, baffled me. I couldn't guess what kind of bird I'd photographed until I got home and enlarged the image. (I use a lens that zooms to 300mm, but my bird shots are usually tiny crops from the resulting photograph; lacking super-vision, I can't see as far in real life as the camera sees.)

Molting Male Lark Bunting on Fence Rail.  © SB

This moulting male Lark Bunting has his own strange beauty, as his mating colours fade to winter browns, whites, grays. 

What are these birds? Lark Buntings  —  male in breeding plumage, female, and moulting male.
Location: Along Township Road 102, south of Regina, Saskatchewan. 

Photo date:  July 23, 2012.

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