Lapland Longspur

About the Lapland Longspur

The Lapland longspur (Calcarius lapponicus), also known as the Lapland bunting, is a passerine bird in the longspur family Calcariidae. It is a circumpolar arctic breeder and the only member of the genus Calcarius present in Eurasia.

The Lapland longspur was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the finches in the genus Fringilla and coined the binomial name Fringilla lapponica. The family is now generally separated by modern authors from the Fringillidae (Old World finches). The Lapland longspur is now one of three longspurs placed in the genus Calcarius that was introduced in 1802 by the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein. The English name refers to the long hind claws. The genus name Calcarius is from Latin calcaria, "spurs", and the specific lapponicus refers to Lapland.

Five subspecies are recognised: C. l. subcalcaratus (Brehm, CL, 1826) – north Canada and Greenland C. l. lapponicus (Linnaeus, 1758) – north Europe and north Asia C. l. kamtschaticus Portenko, 1937 – northeast Siberia C. l. alascensis Ridgway, 1898 – extreme east Siberia, Alaska and northwest Canada... Wikipedia →