An abundant and familiar bird of open country across the western two-thirds of North America, the Western Meadowlark Sturnella neglecta is often seen singing its warbling song from fenceposts along roadsides in native grassland and agricultural areas. It’s such a well-known and well-loved species that it’s the the official State bird for six western States - Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon and Wyoming.

The specific scientific name neglecta was given to the Western Meadowlark because it wasn’t until 1844 that Audubon realised that Eastern (S. magna) and Western Meadowlarks were different species and that the Western had been ‘neglected’ for many years. It’s no wonder that early ornithologists thought that the two were the same species - they are extremely similar. I’m not by any means an expert, but there are subtle differences: there’s no doubt that the white malar of the Eastern stands out very strongly compared with the yellow malars of the Western (which looks to merge with the yellow throat on all but the closest views), Westerns are obviously spotted on the flanks versus streaked on Eastern, and the far narrower amount of white on the Western’s outer-tail feathers give it a much darker look as it flies away compared with the whiter tail so noticeable in Eastern. Apparently the two species can tell the difference themselves, as they hybridize only very rarely and mixed pairs usually occur only at the edge of the range where few mates of the ‘corrrect’ species are available.

Typical meadowlark habitat at Soda Lake Road, Carrizo Plain, California.
The photos (except the bird in flight) and soundfile below were taken in this area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s hard to see quite what purpose such bright underparts serves on a bird that habitually sits on fenceposts in habitat that is patrolled by Prairie Falcons and other predators. Certainly this bird kept constantly looking over its shoulder or up into the sky in between calls, and looked quite alert (despite the fairly close views I’m confident it wasn’t me that was unsettling it as I’m glad to say that it was still sitting on the post when I let the handbrake off and rolled the car down the slope away from it!).

Interestingly this pattern of bright underparts and black gorget also arose in a completely un-related genus of birds, the longclaws Macronyx sp, a pipit-like group with eight members spread over most of Africa south of the Sahara. In fact the Yellow-throated Longclaw M. croceus is so similar that when Linnaeus was first sent a meadowlark specimen he thought that it was a longclaw (a bird he was already familiar with).

Yellow-throated Longclaw Macronyx croceus, Lagos, Nigeria. June 2004.

 

 

Western Meadowlark. Note in this carefully composed and well-timed photo ['hrrrmmph' - even photographer coughs at such a bare-faced claim] the very restricted white in this species’ outer-tail feathers.

 

All photos and soundfile copyright Charlie Moores