Lark Sparrows – A Unique Mating Behavior

Back on May 25 of this year, on this post about Lark Sparrows, I made the following statement at the end of the post: “Now that I have some decent images of this species my next goal with them is to capture some of their unique behaviors.  These birds often pass a twig from the male to the female during copulation (an impressive display of multitasking and concentration).  And they do a turkey-like strut during courtship.  I would love to capture either behavior.”   In your comments, several of you gave me encouragement in meeting that goal and 11 days later I was at least partly able to do so.  These are those images. A couple of these photos may be a little “clinical” for some, but to me it’s all behavior and it’s all interesting.  Techs for all images were: 1/4000 or 1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The courtship of Lark Sparrows includes behaviors found in no other songbirds.  Prior to actual mating, the male struts like a turkey, with its tail sticking up to show off its white tail spots and its wings drooping to the ground.   Then, before the male mounts her, he picks up a twig (or twigs) which he passes to the female just before copulation.  When mating is complete (they may mate or attempt to mate up to 20 times in 3.5 minutes) the female often flies off with the twig.   The courtship had already begun when I approached this mated pair.  Normally, this species doesn’t allow me to get this close…

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Lark Sparrow

I’ve never had much luck with Lark Sparrows but this spring my fortunes with them have improved.  It seems to be a banner year for them on Antelope Island and some of them even cooperate occasionally.  In fact, most of the images in this post are of the same bird.  It was so intent on its singing and territory declaration that it flew from perch to perch for quite a while and gave us some close looks.    1/1600, f/10, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc These are large, long-tailed sparrows with a distinctive chestnut, black and white facial pattern that gives them a harlequin look.  The sparrow is perched on a dried sunflower with significant depth so I went to f/10 for this shot to try to get as many of the seed heads as sharp as possible.      1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  In this shot the same sparrow is changing its position on a sagebrush perch and I was able to catch it with a wing and tail position that I like.  I do wish there were no sage leaves behind the head though.       1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  After it settled its position on the sage it gave me some nice eye contact.       1/3200, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I’ve said before on this blog how much I enjoy sage perches but they’re not without their problems for the photographer.  Dead twigs from last years growth often stick up above the…

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