Habitat suitability index models: Lark bunting

Abstract

The lark bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys) breeds in native grassland and shrubsteppe habitat from southern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba; south to northwestern Texas and New Mexico, and east to Nebraska (Bailey and Niedrach 1965; Baumgarten 1968). In the northern Great Plains, lark buntings reach high populations in a zone extending from southeastern South Dakota to central Montana, then southerly through the shrubsteppe area of Montana and Wyomi ng into the shortgrass area of northeastern Colorado and the southwestern portion of the Nebraska panhandle (Kantrud 1982). Kantrud (1982) reports sparse populations in a zone extending northwestward from northwestern Nebraska to the southwest corner of Montana. The lark bunting previously nested in Minnesota and Iowa, but the fragmentation of tallgrass prairie apparently caused its breeding range to shrink westward (Roberts 1936; Baumgarten 1968). Its movements are irregular during migration, and it occasionally appears as far east as Connecticut and Mississippi (Gates et al. 1980; Spendelow 1980; Toups and Hodges 1981), and as far northwest as Oregon and British Columbia (Baumgarten 1968). The lark bunting winters in southern California and Nevada, east to north-central Texas and south to central Mexico.

Citation

Finch, Deborah M.; Anderson, Stanley H.; Hubert, Wayne A. 1987. Habitat suitability index models: Lark bunting. Biological Report 82(10.137). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service. 16 p.