ML617099188

Age and sex

Unknown age, Female - 1

Media notes

Continuing, female Lark Bunting, present since initially reported on 29 February 2024 by Rebecca Marschall, here photographed by Curtis A. Marantz on 3 April 2024 at Sheldon Arleta Park, Sun Valley, Los Angeles County, California.

Observation details

This was a relatively large sparrow that appeared to be roughly comparable in overall length to nearby White-crowned Sparrows, but it was shorter-tailed and it had a somewhat larger and noticeably plumper body. The bill was rather massive, even for a sparrow, in that it tapered from a conspicuously deep base to a pointed tip along a culmen that appeared to be ever so slightly decurved. I further thought the bill was only slightly longer than it was deep at the base, and I noted that it would have extended backward on the face to a point behind the eye, but I cannot now recall by precisely how much. The forehead was weakly sloping and the crown was gently rounded when held flat, but when the weak crest was erected, the forehead and crown were relatively steep up to a shaggy peak that was above and behind the eye, and from which the back of the neck slopped downward to the back. This bird’s head was also larger for its size than those of the sparrows. The neck was short and stout, and the body was conspicuously plump, full-chested, and with a posture that was roughly diagonal when the bird stood in an alert pose. The wings were notably short, with a somewhat rounded wingtip that fell near the tips of the uppertail coverts, yet clearly short of undertail coverts that appeared to reach about two-thirds of the way out the tail. I noted the tips of only two primaries extending beyond the longest secondary in a primary projection that was conspicuously short, and seemingly only a tenth the length of the exposed secondaries. This bird typically held the wings at the sides of the body, which left the rump exposed most of the time. The tail was almost as long as the head, neck, and body combined, but given that the wings reached about halfway out the tail and undertail coverts reached about two-thirds of the way to the tip, the overall impression was that of a relatively short tail. The closed tail was slim, parallel-sided, and seemingly square-tipped, yet I noted that the central rectrices were quite slim and tapering to pointed tips. The outer feathers appeared to be comparable in length to the central feathers, but what I could see of them appeared to be broader and either square-tipped or broadly rounded. I thought the legs were relatively long and stouter than those of the smaller sparrows. This was a rather plain bird with plumage patterns that were not unlike those of a Vesper Sparrow, albeit with a bold blaze along the leading edge of the closed wing. The forehead and crown were sandy-brown with a grayish cast and fine streaking that appeared to be dark brown to sooty in color. Demarcating the grayish-brown cap was a whitish supercilium that was diffuse and rather weak, especially before the eye. The lores were smudgy and grayish in color. The auriculars were about the same color as the crown, but also with an inconspicuous frame of darker brown that was apparent as a narrow postocular-stripe and a somewhat more conspicuous moustachial-stripe that extended from the base of the bill along the lower edge of the face before continuing in a similar manner along the lower edge of the auriculars and eventually curving upward around their rear terminus. The center of the auriculars were grayish-brown, but a bit paler just behind the eye. A narrow crescent of whitish just below the eye contributed to the appearance of an eyering that was broken more broadly before the eye than behind. I also noted a small spot or oval of whitish that appeared to be at the rear edge of the auriculars. Framing the lower edge of the auriculars was a creamy-white submoustachial-stripe that extended from the base of the lower mandible back to the outer corner of the throat before angling sharply upward behind the auriculars. Further demarcating the submoustachial was a sooty malar-stripe that was quite bold as it extended from the angle of the lower mandible diagonally across the lower part of the face to frame the throat. Although generally solid, the malar stripe became streaky at the outer corner of the throat before blending into the streaking at the side of the breast. The throat was creamy-white and essentially unmarked, apart from a few dark flecks. The underparts were generally this same creamy-white color from the breast down through the belly and undertail coverts, but with a band of narrow, yet well-defined, streaking that appeared to be sooty to blackish in color across the center and sides of the breast. Complementing the streaking on the breast and sides were two or possibly three rows of similar, but longer and somewhat bolder, streaks that extended along the flanks, which also had a brownish cast. I had a hard time seeing the undertail coverts, but I thought they were the same whitish color as the belly and seemingly with at least a few dark streaks. The thighs were about the same whitish color as the belly. Returning to the upperparts, the back and sides of the neck were similar in color to the crown, but seemingly a bit paler and more grayish. My impression was also that the streaking that was obvious and clearly demarcated on the crown was blurry and inconspicuous on the neck. The back was similar in color to the crown, and thus somewhat darker and browner than the neck, and also with dusky streaks that were bolder and better-defined. The lower row of scapulars had a different pattern that combined wedge-shaped centers that were sooty brown in color and contrasting sharply with edges that were cinnamon and tapering from broad bases to pointed tips that appeared not to cross the shaft of each feather. The rump was similar in coloration to the back, but maybe a bit paler and more grayish, and it lacked the obvious streaks that characterized the back. The upperside of the tail was sooty-brown rather than black. On the central feathers, the sooty centers contrasted with narrow fringes of light gray that extended the length of both the inner and outer edges of the feathers to the pointed tips. What I could see of the outermost feathers, visible in the partially spread tail, showed a sharp contrast between a black base and a white tip that was broad on the inner web, but narrower and inconspicuous on the outer web. I was unable to see other feathers clearly, given that I never saw the spread tail. The wings were generally darker than the body and well-marked. I am not sure I ever saw the lesser coverts clearly. Most of the median coverts contrasted black centers with white tips that were relatively narrow on most of the feathers, and with the black centers tapering to pointed tips that nearly bisected the white fringe; however, the outermost feather or two had a broad, white fringe to the outer web that contrasted sharply with a mostly black inner-web that had only a narrow, whitish tip. The greater coverts were even more boldly marked, with several outer feathers each having a broad, white tip to the outer web, but only a narrow white tip to an inner web that was mostly blackish. The result was a broad and somewhat curved blaze of white along the leading edge of the closed wing. I thought the alula and associated feathers were blackish. The remiges were generally dark brown. The innermost secondary had a narrow fringe of cinnamon along its outer edge, but the second “tertial” appeared to be missing on both wings. The remaining remiges apparent in the closed wing were dark brown with narrow edges that ranged from pale buff on most of the feathers to whitish on the primaries, on which there was a series of narrow stripes along the leading edge of the closed wing. The exposed primary tips were dark brown and seemingly unmarked. This bill was bicolored, with the upper mandible slate-gray to blackish and contrasting conspicuously with a steely-gray to battleship-gray lower-mandible. I was able to see dark brown irides in good light. The legs and what I could see of the feet were primarily a dusky-flesh in color.

Technical information

Model

ILCE-7RM5

Lens

FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS

ISO

500

Focal length

600 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/1000 sec

Dimensions

3713 pixels x 2285 pixels

Original file size

12.64 MB