Thick-billed (formerly McCown’s) Longspur

For political reasons McCown’s Longspur was renamed “Thick-billed Longspur” in August, 2020. Note its black breast, russet wing patch, and the bright white tail feathers with black tips.  It breeds on the grasslands of northern Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, and its range overlaps with Chestnut-collared Longspur. Longspurs are now classified in their own family together with the snow buntings, and no longer in the Emberizidae family with sparrows, towhees, and juncos.