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Breeding Range. (Fig. 176). Locally common throughout the Southwestern Slope Region (largely restricted to partially wooded badlands and valleys along the Missouri River and its tributaries); fairly common within eastern Ransom County and northwestern Richland County (in the valley along the Sheyenne River and on the adjoining sandhill area); uncommon and local elsewhere in the Agassiz Lake Plain Region (largely restricted to wooded stream valleys and to the wooded deltaic sand area of western Pembina County), on the Southern Drift Plain (along the Sheyenne River valley in northwestern Ransom County, Barnes County, and Griggs County, and along the James River valley between Jamestown and LaMoure), and on the Northwestern Drift Plain (in valleys along the Mouse River and its tributaries within McHenry and Ward Counties); rare and local elsewhere--recorded in the Turtle Mountains, in the Pembina Hills, and on the Missouri Coteau within Logan County.

Breeding Habitat. Edge complexes that include wood margins or thickets of trees and shrubs and adjoining tracts of grassland or weedy fields. Woody plants in these situations include such species as Rocky Mountain cedar, green ash, bur oak, choke cherry, hawthorn, bullberry, western rose, and silver sage.

Nesting. Breeding season: Late May to late July; peak, early June to mid-July. Extreme egg dates (4 nests): June 20 [1967] in Slope County to July 11 [1963] in Williams County (RES). On June 15 [1962] a nest found in Stutsman County contained three nestlings about one-third grown (RES). Dependent young out of the nest were recorded as early as June 23 [1970] in Walsh County (RES) and as late as July 30 [1913] in Oliver County (S. G. Jewett).

Five nests, including one with three nestlings and one egg, were situated on the ground within a rather sparse cover of herbaceous vegetation.

Figure 176. Breeding Range of Lark Sparrow.