Habitat
Typically in wet, hummocky, tundra meadows, often on relatively flat ground, but also on drier, well-vegetated slopes. Avoids rocky bare terrain occupied by Snow Buntings (Hussell and Montgomerie 2002). On Amchitka Island and at Cape Thompson, highest densities in low-lying flat meadows with dense stands of sedge mixed with other plants (Williamson and Emison 1971). Also occurs in uplands dominated by crowberry and Cladonia pacifica and with sedges, grasses, mosses, and woody or shrubby plants on Amchitka Island. Upland habitats at Cape Thompson includes sedge meadows with diamond-leaf willow, dwarf birch, Labrador tea, and bilberry (Williamson and Emison 1971). In Hooper Bay, breeds in relatively dry freshwater uplands 3-35 m above sea level, avoiding low-lying salt-water tidal marshes where Savannah Sparrows breed (Hussell and Montgomerie 2002). In central Yukon, nests were found up to 1,700 m in elevation (Frisch 1987).
References
Frisch, R. 1987. Birds by the Dempster highway. Revised edition. Morriss Printing, Victoria, B.C. 98 pp.
Hussell, D. J. T. and R. Montgomerie. 2002. Lapland longspur (Calcarius lapponicus). In The Birds of North America. Vol. 17, No. 656 (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C.: The American Ornithologists’ Union.
Williamson, F. S. L. and W. B. Emison. 1971. Variation in the timing of breeding and molt of the Lapland Longspur (Calcarius lapponicus) in Alaska, with relation to differences in latitude. Bioscience 21: 701-707.
