Find Colorado’s state bird, lark buntings,...

(Editor’s note: This is part of The Know’s series, Staff Favorites. Each week, we offer our opinions on the best that Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more. We’ll also let you in on some hidden gems.)

Bison, elk, bighorn sheep, marmots, beaver and chipmunks are some of Colorado’s most familiar fauna. But there are a lot of birds that help give this state its distinctive feel as well. Even if you don’t know their names, you’re probably familiar with the robins that cover green lawns each spring and the swallows that dive bomb cars at intersections.

Red-winged blackbirds can be heard trilling at city parks while grey jays – sometimes known as camp robbers – frequent tent sites in the mountains. Broad-tailed hummingbirds return to backyard feeders every spring, and bald eagle sightings make for good days.

But only one of our feathered friends – one that is less familiar to many people – can lay claim to the title of Colorado state bird: the lark bunting.

Described as a “chunky, thick-billed sparrow that prefers wide open habitats” on the eBird website, lark buntings are notable for their “unmistakable” jet-black bodies and bold white wing patches among breeding males. They can be found “in grasslands, especially shortgrass prairies” and can range from grassland to desert to agricultural areas.

All of which sounds clear enough on paper. But how to find one?

I started bird-watching for a school project as a fifth-grader and got much more into it when I was in my early 20s (one of my best friends was a major bird nerd). But no matter how many cool Colorado species I checked off my life list – belted kingfisher, burrowing owl, wood duck, golden eagle — I hadn’t managed to see a lark bunting. That’s partly because I assumed they were spread out through the Eastern Plains rather than anywhere close to Denver.

Turns out I just hadn’t been looking.

About three years ago, I was on the 11-mile Wildlife Drive at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge with my son, scoping for whatever we could see. And although we were looking to the skies, the treetops and fenceposts, every few yards, groups of birds would rise out of the scrub as our car approached and resettle on the road in front of us. They were small, hard to see. Eventually, we stopped and trained our binoculars on them.

Lark buntings. And they were everywhere.

I learned that they arrive en masse to Rocky Mountain Arsenal in the spring, and some days, it’s hard not to see them. I had finally found our state bird.

That being said, I wondered, wouldn’t it have been easier to designate a state bird that people are more familiar with, or at least one that is easier to find, more colorful or larger?