{"id":46168,"date":"2017-04-12T05:06:50","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T11:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=46168"},"modified":"2026-01-06T04:41:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:41:33","slug":"west-desert-horned-lark-on-sagebrush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/04\/12\/west-desert-horned-lark-on-sagebrush\/","title":{"rendered":"West Desert Horned Lark On Sagebrush"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WestWest Desert male Horned Lark on sagebrush – Nikon D810, f8, 1\/1600, ISO 400, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Spring is a time when the Horned Larks here in Utah perch on top of rocks, posts, mounds of dirt, junipers and sagebrush to sing their songs.<\/p>\n

Horned Larks are year round residents in Utah so it sometimes surprises me when I hear people say “The Horned Larks are back” when they really haven’t ever left they have just moved to locations where they can get to food.<\/p>\n

These larks breed early and I have seen their young in fields this time of the year.<\/p>\n

One year ago today I was out in the West Desert looking for birds to photograph and to check on a pair of nesting Red-tailed Hawks back in a canyon. It really wasn’t all that productive of a day for bird photography but anytime I am out enjoying the birds and scenery is a good day in my opinion.<\/p>\n

The hawks were on their nest and I took a few photographs of a Rock Wren on top of a gnarly old fence post.<\/p>\n

My best images of the day though were of this male Horned Lark that I found and pointed out on sagebrush singing and being blown around by the wind.<\/p>\n

I don’t often have the opportunity to photograph the larks on sagebrush so I jumped at the chance and I liked the out of focus hill in the background with just a sliver of blue sky.<\/p>\n

Horned Larks sing<\/span><\/a> often in the spring and will begin singing before the sun even comes up. I don’t have these larks where I live because the bluegrass lawns in town aren’t attractive to them.<\/p>\n

Pity, I’d love to hear them singing before dawn.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Horned Lark photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My best images of the day though were of this male Horned Lark that I found and pointed out on sagebrush singing and being blown around by the wind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":166426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,436,358,26,1314],"tags":[4004,4181,5435,1327,6433,2136,4062,4104,2817,4057,4018,4735],"class_list":["post-46168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-horned-larks","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","tag-adult","tag-eremophila-alpestris","tag-hills","tag-horned-lark","tag-lark","tag-larks-2","tag-male","tag-perched","tag-sage","tag-sagebrush","tag-sky","tag-song"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-perched-sagebrush-mia-mcpherson-6533.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-c0E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":166438,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2026\/01\/06\/horned-lark-meet-the-2026-aba-bird-of-the-year\/","url_meta":{"origin":46168,"position":0},"title":"Horned Lark – Meet The 2026 ABA Bird Of The Year","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 6, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Meet the Horned Lark, chosen by the American Birding Association as the 2026 ABA Bird of the Year. A bold pick, and honestly a great one.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Early spring Horned Lark male on Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-male-adult-mia-mcpherson-2132.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-male-adult-mia-mcpherson-2132.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-male-adult-mia-mcpherson-2132.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Larks (Eremophila alpestris) in Tooele County, Utah.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Alert Horned Lark male perched on a rock in the West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-alert-mia-mcpherson-3829.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-alert-mia-mcpherson-3829.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-alert-mia-mcpherson-3829.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-alert-mia-mcpherson-3829.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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McPherson","date":"October 6, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning, I spent time photographing a male Horned Lark perched on a barbed wire fence in the West Desert, with Stansbury Island in the background.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fall male Horned Lark in the West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/horned-lark-fall-adult-male-west-desert-mia-mcpherson-2106.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/horned-lark-fall-adult-male-west-desert-mia-mcpherson-2106.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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