Verification of Unusual
Sight Record
For Utah
Rec. # 2020-86
| Common name: |
McCown's (Thick-billed) Longspur |
| Scientific name: | Rhynchophanes mccownii |
| Date: | 12-28-2020 |
| Time: | 12:33pm |
| Length of time observed: | 15 minutes |
| Number: | 1 |
| Age: | ? |
| Sex: | Female? |
| Location: | Upper Gold Hill Road |
| County: | Tooele |
| Latilong: | 40.2493566,-113.9572616 |
| Elevation: | 5,000ftish |
| Distance to bird: | 7m at closest |
| Optical equipment: | Nikon 10X42 Binoculars |
| Weather: | Overcast and lightly snowing, 2 inches of snow on the ground. |
| Light Conditions: | OK flat light. Clouds somewhat translucent |
| Description: Size of bird: | Small passerine |
| (Description:) Basic Shape: | Plump and short tailed |
| (Description:) Overall Pattern: | Mostly gray-brown |
| (Description:) Bill Type: | Stout-grainivore |
|
(Description:)
Field Marks and Identifying Characteristics: |
As we were driving down the road, we noted a very large and dense flock of
Horned Larks flush next to the road near an old corral, we stopped the truck and
rolled down the windows to listen for rattle calls of a longspur, but the Larks
quickly resettled back into the stubble just a few meters from the truck. We
started quickly scanning them with the binos for Longspurs, and sure enough
pretty quickly I found a McCown's, which seemed to be the only non lark in the
flock. It was smaller and shorter tailed than the Larks, but very stocky and big
headed with a stout pink bill, very plain gray-brown color with a pale throat
and supercilium, dark brown cheek, faint streaking on the back, rusty bar in the
wing coverts, and a faint gray chevron on the breast. Max also saw the
distinctive white tail with the dark T in flight, but I didn't. We watched it
for several minutes as they fed and periodically flushed and flew around for no
apparent reason, but always resettled in th e same general spot. At one point a Prairie Falcon pursued the flock, but they quickly scattered, only to resettle in the same spot. We carefully scanned for additional Longspurs but none were seen. (see photos) |
| Song or call & method of delivery: | Heard a few clear whistles in flight |
| Behavior: | Mixed in with large flock of Horned Lark feeding in short cropped vegetation on roadside near an old corral |
| Habitat: | Surrounding steppe mostly of mixed Black Sagebrush and Ephedra with some rock out crops, but area near corral was very disturbed and grown with Halogeton which seemed to be what the Larks were feeding on |
| Similar
species and
how were they eliminated: |
Horned Lark(female/juvenile)-Larger and longer
tailed, faint mask on face contrasting with white throat, dark collar. Lapland Longspur-Generally more contrasting and colorful, orange nape, black auriculars, black streaking on flanks and white belly, smaller orange-pink bill, rust wing coverts with 2 white wing bars, more slender build. Chestnut-collared Longspur-Smaller darker bill and white wing bars in wing coverts |
| Previous
experience with this & similar species: |
Yes, several |
| References consulted: | Memory |
| Description from: | From photo(s) taken at the time of the sighting |
| Observer: | Bryant Olsen |
| Observer's address: | 84102 |
| Observer's e-mail address: | ** |
| Other observers who independently identified this bird: | Mike and Max Malmquist were with me |
| Date prepared: | 12-30-2020 |
| Additional material: | Photos |
| Additional comments: | eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S78216974 |