Associated Species: Another species that may use habitat in a similar way and/or respond similarly to threats, management, and conservation activities is the Burrowing Owl.

Distribution: Horned Larks are holarctic birds, ranging into North Africa and high into the eastern Andes of Columbia. In North America they occur in every province and state except Hawaii. They are less common in the East, frequenting beaches, plowed and low stubble fields, and airfields. Horned Larks are quite infrequent in Florida and the Yucatan states. In Colorado they inhabit expansive treeless areas: mountain parks, alpine tundra, and shortgrass prairie. In Physiographic Area 87, desert and low cover sagebrush steppe make up their primary range.

Habitat Requirements: Horned Larks choose treeless areas with short grass, forbs, and/or scattered short shrubs. They seem to prefer native perennial vegetation over pure annual vegetation for nest sites.

Ecology:. This ground nester may begin building its nest cup in mid April and nesting can continue into August. Nest parasitism has been observed in Colorado, but predation is likely a larger threat to nesting success. Predators include bullsnakes, kit and swift foxes, ravens, Prairie Falcons and, in winter, Merlins. Livestock trampling destroys a few nests. In winter over 90% of the Horned Larks' diet is plant material, largely what are seen by humans as weed seeds. In summer their diet is about two-thirds plant matter and one-third arthropods. Snow conditions in winter brings flocks of Horned Larks to exposed highways, where many are killed by vehicles.

Management Issues and Conservation Recommendations: The Horned Lark is probably the most abundant bird in Physiographic Area 87 and despite its population declines, concern for it is more as an indicator species of land health on its preferred habitat type. On some ranges it is an indicator of degraded condition. Monitor for changes that would indicate significant losses of appropriate habitat.

Land use practices (vegetation cover reductions) that benefit Horned Larks, will probably be deleterious of conditions for most other arid land birds. Loss of native grassland by conversion to agriculture results in loss of nesting habitat and narrowing of the foraging season on such lands. Discourage the conversion of native grassland to agriculture.

Programs to control the principal prey species (grasshoppers, crickets, beetles) are detrimental to Horned Larks, as the insecticides have direct and indirect effects on the birds. Avoid using insecticides over large expanses of public rangelands and discourage such use on private lands. Consider a grasshopper bait line only along the interface of agricultural and range land.

Status and Reasons for Concern: Horned Larks were recorded on an average of 33% of the BBS transects run in Physiographic Area 87 between 1988 and 1997. The BBS results for 1969-1996 for Physiographic Area 87 show a 4.60% annual rate of decline (P < 0.01, n = 59 routes). Horned Larks represent the wildlife preferring the low-stature forms of this habitat and requiring relatively large habitat patches. The value of this species as an indicator species merits the attention here. However, the significant, long-term decline in Horned Larks should be noticed. No studies implicate improving range condition, decrease in weeds, agricultural practices, vehicular traffic or any other factor in this population decline. This uncertainty, of course, diminishes the value of Horned Larks as an indicator species. This species is monitored by MCB with point transects.

Biological Objective: Maintain or increase the species' distribution and abundance, based upon results of the BBS and MCB monitoring programs. Locally, where range potentials for vegetative cover are greater than are suitable for Horned Larks, reductions in population density is the objective.

Selected References: Andrews and Righter 1992, Hurley and Franks 1976, Kingery 1998.