Western Bird Guide: Birds of the Rockies and West to the Pacific

by Charles K. Reed

DESERT HORNED LARK.

474c. Otocoris alpestris leucolæma. 8 inches.

Found from British Columbia south, in winter to southern California, Texas and New Mexico. They are one of our handsome winter birds, with horn-like tufts of black on either side of the head; forehead, patch under the eye and band on the breast black; yellow throat, and white under parts; upper parts, a light pinkish shade of brown. Three or four eggs, white, marked with shades of brown, are placed in their nest of grasses and rootlets, on the ground, usually concealed under a tuft of grass (.92 × .65).