McCown's longspur (Photo by Alan MacKeigan)

McCown's longspur

An uncommon sight but a truly rewarding one if you are lucky to catch a glimpse, the McCown’s longspur puts on an aerial courtship display that rivals the best of human acrobats. Like a parachuter keen to impress, displaying males fly up while singing a warbling song and “float” gently back to the ground with spread wings and fanned tail, still in song.

A songbird of the northern Great Plains of North America, McCown’s longspur is an indicator species that signals the health of the habitat they live in. The longspur in its name describes the elongated claw on its hind toe.

What does it look like?

McCown’s longspur is a greyish brown, medium-sized sparrow-like bird. The male has a black crown and chest, rust-coloured shoulder, with a white tail showing an inverted T pattern in black. The female is dull greyish brown with the same tail pattern as the male.

Where does it live?

(Click on the image to enlarge)

McCown’s longspurs spend the summer breeding, from southeastern Alberta to southwestern Saskatchewan, south through Montana and eastern Wyoming. Their wintering range extends from southwestern U.S. to northern Mexico. This species prefers dry, almost barren short-grass prairies. They can be found in places such as cultivated farm fields, dry lakebeds, pastures and closely grazed mix-grass prairies.

They usually nest on open ground, right next to small shrubs, piles of cow manure or a large clump of grass. Their nest site is a depression in the ground lined with nesting material including grasses, animal hairs and plant fibres.

What is this species’ conservation status?

McCown’s longspur has been assessed threatened under the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada and is listed as special concern under the Species at Risk Act.

The McCown’s longspur population is declining due to their prairie habitat. The species’ population has declined 88 per cent from 1966 to 2014 according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey, and Partners in Flight estimates that there is a breeding population of 138,000 birds in Canada.

What is NCC doing to protect habitat for this species?

The Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC’s) Old Man on His Back Prairie Heritage and Conservation Area (OMB) is a stellar example of large-scale conservation of ecologically significant habitat that supports many grassland species, including McCown’s longspur. This expanse of semi-arid grassland, totalling 5,315 hectares (13,135 acres), is a beacon of hope for the remaining mixed-grass prairies in Saskatchewan that are rapidly disappearing due to cropland conversion.

In 2017, NCC conducted surveys for grassland songbirds on several of our properties, including OMB. McCown’s longspur was detected on OMB; previous records also documented the species on the property in 2010 and 2013. NCC plans to continue to conduct grassland songbird surveys in the coming years to ensure management of the property provides suitable habitat for the entire grassland songbird community. Since 1996, NCC has actively managed OMB as a working ranch, demonstrating how ranching can be used as a management tool for grassland birds.