Flava Horned Lark
Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris flava, Eastern Bering Sea, 31 August 2010. Click on photos to enlarge.
Another hitchhiker this morning. The yellow throat and supercillia identify this Horned Lark as the flava subspecies, breeding in eastern Russia. It winters in southern Russia, northeast China and Japan and is a casual fall migrant to the islands of the Bering Sea.
Before landing on the ship this morning the Horned Lark was doing laps around the ship with a smaller mystery passerine. Unfortunately, that one got away.
Other migrants flying by the ship today were 11 Pacific Golden-Plovers, 1 Ruddy Turnstone and 1 Tattler sp.
- Brazil, M. 2009. Birds of East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia. Princeton University Press.
- Gibson, D. D., and Byrd, G. V. 2007. Birds of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Nuttall Ornithological Club and the American Ornithologists’ Union. Series in Ornithology 1.
- Gibson, D. D., and Kessel, B. 1997. Inventory of the species and subspecies of Alaska birds. Western Birds 28:45-95.
- Lehman, P. E. 2005. Fall migration at Gambell, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Western Birds 36:2-55.
