{"id":10199,"date":"2012-12-11T07:39:44","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T14:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=10199"},"modified":"2012-12-11T07:39:44","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T14:39:44","slug":"horned-larks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/11\/horned-larks\/","title":{"rendered":"Horned Larks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Horned Larks aren’t one of the “glamour species” for many, probably partly due to the fact that they’re so widespread and common.\u00a0 They’re found\u00a0 throughout most of North America and much of Eurasia.\u00a0 One of my scientific heroes, Carl (Carolus) Linnaeus, assigned the Latin name Eremophila\u00a0alpestris\u00a0<\/em>(meaning “lark of the mountains”)\u00a0to this bird, despite the fact that they commonly inhabit prairies, farmlands and deserts.<\/p>\n

These were the most common birds, by far, on the Montana farm where I grew up and they always bring back fond memories for me.\u00a0 Many folks think of them as just another “mostly brown little bird” but when you get close their colors and patterns really stand out.\u00a0 I really\u00a0enjoy their soft, subtle call and have spent many hours watching them up close through my\u00a0lens.<\/p>\n

These photos were taken on Antelope Island in the last few weeks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"horned<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0The sexes are similar, though the colors of the males are more vivid and the namesake\u00a0“horns” of the female are\u00a0less evident than those of the male.\u00a0 This is the female.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"horned<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0She posed for me for quite a while before flying off.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"horned<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0This is the male, in a setting that shows more habitat.\u00a0 Often the black horns are laid back flat on the head like this and difficult to see from most angles.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"horned<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0This male\u00a0displayed his horns a little better as\u00a0he was rousing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"horned<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I don’t catch the\u00a0horns this erect very often but here they’re quite obvious.<\/p>\n

This species spends most of its time on the ground feeding among\u00a0 the vegetation which makes it difficult to get a clear shot of them.\u00a0 But they also habitually perch on low rocks and they seem to have their favorites.\u00a0 There’s a group of boulders on the island that I’ve come to rely on as a reliable place to find these birds and these shots were taken on those rocks.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Horned Larks aren’t one of the “glamour species” for many, probably partly due to the fact that they’re so widespread and common.\u00a0 They’re found\u00a0 throughout most of North America and much of Eurasia.\u00a0 One of my scientific heroes, Carl (Carolus) Linnaeus, assigned the Latin name Eremophila\u00a0alpestris\u00a0(meaning “lark of the mountains”)\u00a0to this bird, despite the fact that they commonly inhabit prairies, farmlands and deserts. These were the most common birds, by far, on the Montana farm where I grew up and they always bring back fond memories for me.\u00a0 Many folks think of them as just another “mostly brown little bird” but when you get close their colors and patterns really stand out.\u00a0 I really\u00a0enjoy their soft, subtle call and have spent many hours watching them up close through my\u00a0lens. These photos were taken on Antelope Island in the last few weeks.   \u00a01\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not set up or called in \u00a0The sexes are similar, though the colors of the males are more vivid and the namesake\u00a0“horns” of the female are\u00a0less evident than those of the male.\u00a0 This is the female.     \u00a01\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not set up or called in \u00a0She posed for me for quite a while before flying off.     \u00a01\/2000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not set up or called in \u00a0This is the male, in a setting that shows more habitat.\u00a0 Often the black horns are laid back flat on…<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[334,354],"tags":[1049,124,137,174,175,1048,211,994],"class_list":["post-10199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","category-horned-larks","tag-atelope-island","tag-eremophila-alpestris","tag-female","tag-horned-lark","tag-horns","tag-linnaeus","tag-male","tag-rouse"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-2Ev","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}