Fun Longspur Facts For Kids

Longspurs are songbirds that belong to the Calcariidae family of animals. These birds are mainly seen in Asia, Europe, and major parts of North America.

These birds feed mainly on the ground; one can spot them in grass plains, prairies, tundra, and low bushes. These are territorial birds and hence are often seen engaging in combats with birds of their own species.

These combats are a way through which they declare the ownership of their territory. The bird pairs of these species are usually monogamous and engage in the mating period around the month of May.

According to records, three species of these longspurs can be categorized as the Smith's longspur, the Lapland longspur, and the chestnut-collar longspur. These birds look like sparrows, yet they are categorized as longspurs because of their extended claws on the hind toes.

Read on to know more about these birds. To read about similar species, check magnificent frigatebird and gray catbird .

Longspur Interesting Facts

What type of animal is a longspur?

Longspurs are birds that belong to the Calcariidae family of animals. The species in this family consist of a few different ones that live across Asia, Europe, and North America.

What class of animal does a longspur belong to?

These species, belonging to the Calcariidae family, order Passeriformes, and genus Calcarius, belong to the Aves class of animals.

How many longspurs are there in the world?

When it comes to the longspurs, if one can compare with similar species, the exact number of their population has not yet been calculated.

Where does a longspur live?

This species of the Calcariidae family, order Passeriformes, and genus Calcarius is found in Asia and Europe but mainly in parts of North America.

What is a longspur's habitat?

The species in this family are mainly found in different types of grasses and short bushes. They find their habitats in the tundra, grass plains, and prairie areas too. These birds are migratory species, especially in the winter season.

Who do longspurs live with?

These are territorial birds and are mostly monogamous in nature. They are seen in their pairs during the breeding season; otherwise, males are usually aggressive against each other for the territory marking of the longspur. The winter season is an exception for these territorial activities as the birds gather in flocks during this period.

How long does a longspur live?

Longspurs are known to have an average lifespan of four years in the wild.

How do they reproduce?

These birds from the order Passeriformes, family Calcariidae, are usually categorized as socially monogamous species. Being of the songbird category, there are many males seen singing during their breeding season.

After meeting their female counterparts, these birds mate, and females lay eggs in the nest, usually built on the ground.

These nests are made with grasses, leaves, twigs and are usually hidden in or near bushes or other plants. Some of the longspur species go through two broods together, first around mid-May and the second almost after a fortnight, and they usually try to build a new nest for both these broods.

Females lay a clutch of around two to a maximum of six eggs. The incubation is done mainly by the longspur female and lasts for 10 - 15 days. After the eggs hatch, the nestling period usually extends from a week to a fortnight. Around 15 days after hatching, the newborns leave the nest.

What is their conservation status?

As the longspurs include different species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed these species accordingly; Smith's longspur and Lapland longspur are considered to be of Least Concern. On the other hand, the Chestnut-collared longspurs are marked as Near Threatened; this is mainly due to their habitat loss.  

Longspur Fun Facts

What do longspurs look like?

The longspurs of the order Passeriformes, family Calcariidae, are small songbirds with a major part of their body being striped with white-grey-brown feathers.

Their subspecies are distinguished with a few physically descriptive variations.

For instance, the thick-billed longspurs have a dark patch near their neck with a white chest and underparts, the Smith's longspurs have ochre-yellow underparts and a black head with white streaks above the eyes, the chestnut-collar ones have a black crown and chest with a chestnut patch on the neck, and Lapland longspurs have a white chest, black face and crown and a brown patch on the back of the neck.

All these longspurs have tiny greyish legs, dark beady eyes, and a short, pointy bill that helps them feed themselves and their nestlings.

How cute are they?

The longspur song and appearance are things that make all the birds of these species universally known as cute little birds.

How do they communicate?

These birds of North America use their visual and acoustic aid to communicate with each other. The males are often seen singing during the breeding period; they use this to attract their female partners. They also have different calls that they use while combating other males during the mating season.

How big is a longspur?

Longspurs are small songbirds with a size range of 5.5-6.3 in (14-16 cm). Even then, these birds are almost twice the size of the golden-crowned kinglet which has a length of 3.1-4.3 in (8-11 cm).

How fast can a longspur fly?

Longspurs are agile flyers and are known to fly up to 65.6 ft (20 m) of height. However, their exact speed is yet to be measured.

How much does a longspur weigh?

These birds can be classified as tiny in their weight range, as their average weight ranges between 0.8-1.2 oz (22-33 g).

What are the male and female names of the species?

The term longspur is a sex-neutral nomenclature used for males, females, and infants.

What would you call a baby longspur?

A baby longspur is called a nestling, chick, or hatchling too.

What do they eat?

These are omnivorous birds. Their carnivorous diet includes insects like crickets, flies, beetles, grasshoppers, and other invertebrates too. The major part of their herbivorous diet consists of seeds, nuts, leaves, grasses, and berries. The parents take the responsibility of feeding their nestlings for a span of 15 days after hatching until the newbies leave the nest.

Are they dangerous?

There are no known dangers to humans or otherwise to nature caused by longspurs.

Would they make a good pet?

Longspurs prefer living in the wild, and hence, domesticating them is not advisable.

Did you know...

These birds display a huge appetite during the summer season, wherein their diet counts of around 3000 - 10000 seeds and insects in one day. During this period, the nestlings are known to eat around 3000 insects per day.

Different types of longspur

There are four different types of longspurs: the Smith's longspur, the Lapland longspur, the thick-billed longspur, and the chestnut-collar longspur. These birds can be distinguished based on their physical appearance and place of origin too.

They are usually seen in the arctic and tundra regions or on prairies based on their favorable habitat ranges. However, the thick-billed longspur now belongs to a different genus from the others.

What makes a bird a longspur?

These birds got their name as a longspur mainly because of the long claw they all have on the hind toe of each foot.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! For more relatable content, check out these giant cowbird facts and ani bird facts for kids.

You can even occupy yourself at home by coloring in one of our free printable bird coloring pages.