Chestnut Collared Longspur Mini Original

If you’re a Midwesterner, you may have at least heard (or heard of) this beautiful bird with a ‘long back toe.’ This native grassland bird is on the decline due to habitat loss, but efforts to restore native prairie land is underway.

From All About Birds:

“A true emblem of North America’s wild and windswept spaces, the Chestnut-collared Longspur is an integral part of the continent’s shortgrass prairies, rangelands, and desert grasslands. Breeding males are a bold mix of black belly, buffy throat, and chestnut nape, and they flaunt these colors as they perform fluttering display flights in early summer. In winter, males and females alike are grayish and inconspicuous as they forage in desert grasslands. Despite this species’ association with disturbed land, its population has declined by more than 80% since the 1960s.”

Original mixed media on raw stretched canvas with maple float frame.