BROWN BIRDS SEEN IN NORTH AMERICA

Smith's Longspur 

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Calcarius Pictus 

BREEDING PLUMAGE:

Males have an unstreaked orangish belly and a patterned black-and-white face and white outer tail feathers.

Females have a heavily streaked back often flecked with white. The face is rather plain with a white eyering and a thin bill.

NONBREEDING PLUMAGE:

Males are buffy below with fine streaking down the belly.

Females have two thin white wingbars, though the wingbars are not always visible. They have buffy underparts with fine streak.

Juveniles are similar to females.

BILL: short, thick and pointed.

SIZE: measures about 5.9 - 6.7 inches in length, with a wingspan of 10 - 11 inches.

WEIGHT: weighs about 20 - 32 grams.

COLOR: orange, black and white (breeding), buff and white (nonbreeding).

Seeds and insects.

Breeds on dry, grassy, and hummocky tundra. Winters in fields with short grass, prairies, and grassy margins of airports.

Summers in the Arctic.

Winters in the southern Great Plains and southern Mississippi river area.

CALL: Flight note a dry rattle.

SONG: Song a high sweet warble.

NEST: Nest is a grass cup on the ground.

EGGS: 3 - 5 eggs.

Most of their foraging is done on the ground.

During the summer breeding season, they will also glean insects from vegetation, moving deliberately through shrubs and other low plants.

SOURCES:
https://www.birds-of-north-america.net
https://en.wikipedia.org
https://www.allaboutbirds.org
https://www.sdakotabirds.com