{"id":4888,"date":"2012-04-29T12:34:53","date_gmt":"2012-04-29T18:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=4888"},"modified":"2025-10-24T15:12:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T20:12:24","slug":"lark-sparrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/04\/29\/lark-sparrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Lark Sparrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a day that\u00a0the weather forecasters said would\u00a0be “Sunny” this morning sure didn’t start off that way. In fact, for the first hour or more the light was very wishy-washy.<\/p>\n

The clouds were thick to the east and blocking the sun. But… when the sun finally did start to shine one bird made the bad light earlier worth it.<\/p>\n

\"PerchedPerched Lark Sparrow – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/1600, ISO 640, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the closest I have been to a Lark Sparrow to date and this was a very cooperative bird too! I had seen my FOY (first of year) Lark Sparrow last week and hoped that this year I’d be able to get closer and better images of the species.\u00a0 Got it!<\/p>\n

Lark Sparrows have\u00a0bold harlequin facial patterns, a single dark breast spot (not visible here) and a long dark tail with white corners making them amongst the easiest sparrows to identify.<\/p>\n

Lark Sparrows<\/span><\/a>\u00a0breed here in Utah in sage flats and grasslands,\u00a0they spend their winters in the southern U. S. to southwest Mexico.<\/p>\n

I think they are handsome sparrows. Perhaps my luck\u00a0in photographing\u00a0them is changing.<\/p>\n

Life is good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

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

This is the closest I have been to a Lark Sparrow to date and this was a very cooperative bird too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":161598,"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":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,27,1022,1465,26],"tags":[4004,2519,11480,4372,11978,4736,1539,4104,2817,4057,855,4195,165],"class_list":["post-4888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-lark-sparrows","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-artemisia-tridentata","tag-big-sagebrush","tag-chondestes-grammacus","tag-desert-island","tag-harlequin-facial-patterns","tag-lark-sparrow","tag-perched","tag-sage","tag-sagebrush","tag-sparrow","tag-sparrows","tag-spring"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lark-sparrow-mia-mcpherson-9201.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1gQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5050,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/05\/22\/lark-sparrow-on-antelope-island\/","url_meta":{"origin":4888,"position":0},"title":"Lark Sparrow on Antelope Island","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I had some luck with a cooperative Lark Sparrow this past Sunday where the handsome bird stuck around for quite a bit on several different perches.","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":"Back view of a Lark Sparrow perched in sagebrush, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/lark-sparrow-mia-mcpherson-5463.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/lark-sparrow-mia-mcpherson-5463.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Antelope Island","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"For the past week I have been anxiously awaiting my first sighting of Lark Sparrows and yesterday I finally saw them.","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":"Singing Lark Sparrow perched in Sagebrush in northern Utah.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lark-sparrow-singing-mia-mcpherson-0956.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lark-sparrow-singing-mia-mcpherson-0956.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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