Horned larks (Eremophila alpestris) are little brown birds with yellow faces and black masks who like bare brown fields and beaches, where they can forage for seeds and insects. These busy songbirds are in steep decline, according to the Cornell Web site, so it was a joy to see them in January 2018 at Great Kills Park on Staten Island and in December 2018 and January 2019 on the Breezy Point Beach in Queens.
Horned lark, the beach at Breezy Point, Queens, December 27, 2018
In the Filming the Feathers video, you can see the very busy, busy birds running on the ground, rarely stopping for more than a few seconds. When sensing a predator or danger, they fly off together, circle, and return to ground either where they left or farther away. The "horned" part of their name refers to the two feathers sticking up on their heads, sometimes waving in the breeze. The music is Franz Joseph Haydn's "Lark" string quartet, performed by Musopen String Quartet, and obtained from MusOpen.org, a royalty-free music source.
