Smith's Longspur(s)

Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport, VA 2/25/15

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

Walt Childs and I decided not to go back to the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport in Weyers Cave, Virginia, this morning. We suspected that there would be a lot of birders there, and since we had already seen the Smith's Longspur when we discovered it on February 23, we wanted to give other birders some room to view it. So we headed to Swoope, Virginia, but kept the option open to go back to the airport if there weren't much to see in Swoope.

In the Swoope area, we saw a few sparrow species, some other common woodland/pasture birds, a single American Kestrel, and a Bald Eagle sitting in its nest, so we decided to go back to the airport after lunch. As we drove along the road leading to the airport, we saw a few birds, including a juvenile Sharp-Shinned Hawk. We met a few birders on the road leading into the parking lot, and learned that two Smith's Longspurs had been seen - the pale one that we had seen two days earlier, and another one that was more buffy in color, and had a larger dark area on its upper bill.

We had no reason to doubt that there might have been two Smith's Longspurs there. On February 23, there were lots of Horned Larks, Lapland Longspurs, and the Smith's Longspur, and it was quite possible that we had not seen all the birds along the entrance road to the parking lot, or elsewhere in the airport area.

We had assumed that the Smith's Longspur we had seen on February 23 was a female because it was so pale. In fact, it had looked odd to us for a Lapland Longspur, and we had not considered a Smith's Longspur as a possibility, decided to post it as a Lapland Longspur, and see if anyone had other opinions. We heard back right away from two birders that a Smith's Longspur was a possibility, so I posted this information for others to take a look. Had we known while we were there on February 23 that it was a Smith's Longspur, we would have stayed longer and looked for others.


Smith's Longspur seen on February 23

We saw one of the Smith's Longspurs right away, and it was foraging along the road shoulder with a small number of Horned Larks and a Savannah Sparrow. I am posting the Savannah Sparrow photo here because of the size of its bill. There are 12 sub-species of Savannah Sparrows, and the large-billed ones are usually not found here.


Large-billed Savannah Sparrow

I photographed the buffy Smith’s Longspur at the end of the road closer to the parking lot, and then saw Walt and other birders looking at a bird near the road entrance, walked up there, and photographed the pale Smith’s Longspur there, and had not seen a bird flying by me, confirming to me at the time, that there were two of them. However, I don’t know of anyone who has reported seeing the two Smith’s Longspurs together at the same time.

I post a few of the many photos that I took that afternoon, and needed time to look at and process the rest of the photos. One birder thought that the feather patterns on the pale Smith’s Longspur and the buffy Smith’s Longspur were the same, and it was the same bird. The flight photos I posted of the buffy Smith’s Longspur clearly shows the two white outer tail feathers on each side, confirming that it was a Smith's Longspur, and the white shoulder patch indicates a male. According to Beadle and Rising's "Sparrows of the United States and Canada" reference, winter female Smith's Longspurs do not show the white shoulder patch.


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur

Now that I have looked at all of the photos, I am no longer sure if there were two Smith's Longspurs there, or only one, and perhaps lighting, especially reflection off of either snow, gravel, or warm brown grasses, may have resulted in both the “pale” and “buffy” appearance of the same bird. I leave it up to the readers to draw their own conclusions. I have posted a sampling of the many photos below. All I can tell for sure is that some of the photos of the pale Smith's Longspur also show a white shoulder patch, indicating that both birds, if there are two, are males.

I tried to compare feather patterns of the birds in the photos, but could not draw any definitive conclusions. However, consider the following two photos. The pale Smith's Longspur is on gravel, and the buffy Smith's Longspur is on grass, and the crown patterns look different, but I think that it is the same bird because the dark upper bill area looks to be identical.


Smith's Longspur

Here are the rest of the photos that I processed for posting.


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur



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