Family: Emberizidae, New World Sparrows view all from this family
Description 5 3/4-6 1/2" (15-17 cm). Sparrow-sized. Breeding male streaked dark brown and buff above, clear warm buff below; bold black and white head pattern. Small white wing patch, most evident in flight; tail black, with white outer feathers. Females and winter males duller and without head pattern, but always more buff-colored than other longspurs.
Habitat Arctic tundra and forest edges; winters on open grassy plains.
Nesting 3-5 pale brown eggs, spotted with darker brown, in a grass-walled hollow lined with plant down and feathers and concealed under a clump of grass or a dwarf willow.
Range Breeds from northern Alaska across northern Canada to Hudson Bay. Winters from Nebraska south to Texas.
Voice Dry rattle, like a finger running along the teeth of a comb.
Discussion Longspur identification is difficult in the Midwest, where all four species winter, but this species, clad in warm buff year-round, can be told at a glance. At times they are found in huge flocks moving over the dry winter grasslands in search of seeds, uttering a distinctive clinking call. A beautiful bird, the Smith's Longspur breeds at the treeline and, unlike the Lapland Longspur, which is truly a bird of open tundra, Smith's does not have a flight song but marks its territory by singing from the top of a small tree or hillock.
