Austria (P), Belarus (NB), Belgium (NB), Canada (B) (P), China (mainland), Denmark (NB) (P), Faroe Islands (B), Finland (B) (NB) (P), France (NB), Germany (P), Greenland (B) (NB), Hungary (NB), Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania (NB), Mexico, Mongolia, Netherlands Antilles (NB), North Korea, Norway (B), Poland (NB), Romania (NB), Russia (Asian) (B), Russia (Central Asian) (B) (NB), Russia (European) (B), Slovakia (Slovak Republic) (NB), South Korea, Spain (NB), St Pierre and Miquelon (NB) (P), Sweden (B) (NB), Ukraine (NB), United Kingdom (NB), USA (B).
Vagrant to Algeria, Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (Local Name: Hrvatska), Czech Republic, Malta, Montenegro, Portugal, Serbia, Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands, Switzerland, Turkey.
Population
Estimated population is 150,000,000 (2010).
Lapland Longspur (Calcarius lapponicus) [XC779162]
by Stanislas Wroza from Arrondissement d'Abbeville (near Fort-Mahon-Plage), Somme, Hauts-de-France, France (flight call)
Lapland Longspur (Calcarius lapponicus) [XC441914]
by Hans Groot from Folldal, Hedmark, Norway (call)
Nest
On the ground, a cup of grass, small roots, leaves and lichen, in a tussock of grass.
Eggs (Guide)
4 - 6; variable but often pale green with dark markings.
Subspecies
Molecular studies indicate that genus is basal to both the New World and the Old World emberizids, and closely related to Plectrophenax. Has been suggested that these two genera and Rhynchophanes be placed in a separate family, Calcariidae. Geographical variation appears to be mainly clinal.
Proposed subspecies subcalcaratus (described from Greenland) is treated as a synonym of nominate and kamtschaticus (eastern Kamchatka) as a synonym of coloratus.
The following 5 subspecies are recognised:
alascensis Ridgway, 1898 - Breeds Pribilof Is, northern and western Alaska (including St Lawrence I, Nunivak I, Aleutian Is, Kodiak I and Middleton I) and north-western Canada (northern Yukon and north-western Northwest Territories). Winters in extreme southern Canada (southern British Columbia) and USA (western Montana and southern South Dakota south to north-eastern California, northern Arizona and northern Texas, casually south to central California and east to Ohio).
lapponicus (Linnaeus, 1758) - Breeds northern Canada (south to central Nunavut, northern Ontario, northern Quebec and northern Labrador) and western and southern Greenland, and from western and northern Fennoscandia eastern across northern Siberia (including southern third of Novaya Zemlya, New Siberian Is and Wrangel I) to Bering Strait. Winters in USA (Colorado east to Wisconsin, south to northern Texas, Tennessee and Delaware, casually Louisiana and Florida) and south-eastern Canada (southern Ontario, Vermont and central Nova Scotia), and in Palearctic on southern North Sea shores, central-eastern Europe and eastern across central Asia to Russian Altai, Mongolia and northern China.
coloratus Ridgway, 1898 - Breeds eastern Siberia around northern portion of Shelekhova Gulf, on Kamchatka Peninsula and Commander Is. Winters in eastern China south to R Yangtze (and occasionally Sakhalin I, Korea and Japan).
subcalcaratus (Brehm, CL, 1826) - Northern Canada and Greenland.
The Reader's Digest Book of British Birds 1980, 3rd Edition, Drive Publications Ltd ISBN 0 340 25308 8
Birds in Colour Campbell, B., 1960, Penguin Books Ltd
The Pocket Guide to Nest and Eggs Fitter, R.S.R., 1954, Collins
RSPB Handbook of British Birds Holden, P., Cleeves, T., 2002, A & C Black ISBN 0 7136 5713 8
Birds of Britain and Europe Sterry, P., et al., 2001, AA Publishing ISBN 0 7495 3068 5
The Popular Handbook of British Birds Hollom, P.A.D., 1973, H.F. & G. Witherby Ltd ISBN 0 85493 002 7
BirdLife International Species Factsheet