Rustico magico

One of the highlights of visiting Hedmark in the spring/early summer was seeing Rustic Buntings (vierspurv). I have already described finding a singing 2cy male but I was also lucky enough to see a breeding pair. Unlike the singing male these birds were (as always in my experience) exceptionally quiet and difficult to locate. It can take hours before you stumble upon them but then you can be treated to amazingly close views. Once paired up and in breeding modus the male seems to stop singing  and any contact calls between the pair are very quiet and require you to be within a few metres to hear. This all makes the searching for and eventual finding of a pair even more magical. The rarity of the species obviously adds to the allure but there is also something about its choice of habitat that makes it special. Hopefully these pictures will convey some of that magic.



female Rustic Bunting

always lots of dead spruce branches and licken



not always easy to see



an adult male in all his glory