Bird of the Week – Snow Bunting
The all-time champion far north-breeding songbird is the Snow Bunting.
Snow Bunting, South Fairbanks, Early Spring 2012
The Snow Bunting is the first migratory songbird to arrive in Interior Alaska in the spring, en route to mountaintops and the far northern edge of Alaska. They are a common sight in Barrow, Alaska; much less common any further south. This may be the song bird that breeds furthest north; they are found on the northerly shores of Greenland and the northern edge of the Canadian arctic archipelago.
They are welcome sight in Fairbanks each year: they are the earliest sign winter might, just possibly, be ending.
For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.
Mike from Iowa –
You have Horned Larks in Iowa; they winter in your fields there.
Snow Buntings winter in the northern half of Iowa. In non-breeding plumage, up until about March, they look a bit different than WC’s photo of a male in breeding plumage. Lots of rusty color on the back, wings and face.
Hope this helps.
/WC
Thanks WC. I see lots of birds around here in the Winter that feed (or just pick up gravel) on exposed gravel roads in the harshest winds and cold. They are always in bunches of a dozen or more and I find it hard to believe they survive without windbreaks and roaring fires. Geez,but they must be tough.
What in tunket is going on with birds. Your snow bunting looks nothing like what I call snow buntings in iowa. Then I find out iowa only has one lark specie(aha,just as I figured),but it isn’t the common meadowlark which I’m told is not a lark at all but something else. It is that danged horned lark you showcased last week. I’m crying fowl and want some answers! Or not.
Thanks, WC. I was not even aware of the snow bunting’s existence. What a lovely photo of a beautiful bird.