Banner Photo by Ann Kramer

Featured Bird

Western Meadowlark by Joe Halton

MEET THE WESTERN MEADOWLARK (Sturnella neglecta)

by Jeff Sinker

The lilting flutelike melody of the Western Meadowlark floats across pastures, grasslands and prairies throughout the west and midwestern states and provinces of the US and Canada. Often heard more than seen, Western Meadowlarks are extremely sensitive to human disturbance, but this doesn’t mean you will never see one. Although they are hard to spot because of their preference for remaining low to the ground, males often perch on fence posts or other elevated perches. During non-breeding seasons, these colorful members of the blackbird family travel in loose flocks and associate with other blackbirds and starlings.

Western Meadowlarks have a unique feeding method known as “gaping.” This means the birds push their bills into the ground and, using very strong facial muscles, force open their buried bills to create a hole in the ground. This gives them access to insects that other birds cannot reach. They also have distinctive seasonal feeding preferences: weedy seeds during fall, grain in winter and early spring, insects in breeding and nesting seasons.

Male Western Meadowlarks typically have two mates at one time. The male defends the territory and brings food to the nest after the chicks hatch. The females select the nest site, build the nest, and do all of the incubation and most of the chick rearing. Females spend 6-8 days constructing a nest using grasses and other vegetation found close to the chosen site. The finished nest often contains a roof made of grass to both help conceal the nest and to protect it from rain. Western Meadowlarks are ground nesters and will abandon a nest if they are disturbed. Where their range overlaps with the Eastern Meadowlark, they may (rarely) interbreed but although hybrids are fertile, the egg hatching rate is low.

Breeding populations are estimated to have declined 37% between 1966-2019. The reasons probably include loss of grassland and native prairie habitats to conversion for housing and agriculture, pesticide effects on insects, and fire suppression management techniques used on native grasslands. Western Meadowlarks are the state bird of six states: Montana, Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon, North Dakota and Wyoming. They can be found in appropriate habitats from sea level to 10,000 feet.

Learn more: www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Meadowlark.