The meadowlark has been a newsmaker this summer – but not the North Dakota state bird, which is the western meadowlark. The newsmaker is its close relative – almost a twin species – the eastern meadowlark. The Red River Valley pretty much marks the western border of the eastern meadowlark’s range in the northern United States.
Once in a while, an eastern meadowlark shows up west of the river. The likelier meadowlark, by far, is the western meadowlark, which is common, though declining, across North Dakota. This year, eastern meadowlarks have been reported in unexpected numbers and in unexpected places across the state.
This may be due to closer observation by more birders who have previously explored many areas west of the valley, and perhaps also to the spread of birdwatching beyond professional ornithologists, clumped up in larger cities and mostly in college towns. More and better equipment might play a role, too, and so might gadgets, like the Merlin app described last week, which help clinch identifications. The app is available without cost from the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology.
The lab is the source of news about birds. Birders post sightings on its website, and the lab distributes a list of unexpected sightings via email. The eastern meadowlark has been prominent in the North Dakota “rare bird reports” this year.
Threats to the western meadowlark population have prompted the state to launch “the Meadowlark Initiative,” with the goal of saving grasslands that are the meadowlark’s habitat. ADVERTISEMENT These two species are very alike. In his Crossley Guide (my current go-to bird book), Richard Crossley declares that identifying the two species is “notoriously difficult.
” He offers several distinguishing – though nearly unnoticeable – variations in plumage. Western meadowlarks tend to be paler and with less contrast. The eastern meadowlark “has whiter flanks with spots rather than long streaks, less rufous tones on upperparts, and blander face pattern.
” Specifically, the malar – an area of the cheek below and behind the bill – “is usually mostly yellow, strongest in males,” while in eastern meadowlarks it is white. This difference is “quite easy to see” and makes silent birds identifiable. Plus, he says, “white in outer tail feathers is less extensive” in western than in eastern meadowlarks.
” But the real clincher is the voice. The eastern meadowlark’s is “beautiful, short melodic whistles descending in pitch.” The western meadowlark’s song, he says, is “incredibly variable, a melodious descending, gurgled ramble of notes.
” For me – and probably for most of us who’ve grown up on the North Dakota prairie – there is no more beautiful sound than this. Crossley declares “song is by far the best way to identify this bird.” The western meadowlark is much beloved by prairie dwellers.
It is the avian emblem of six states, all of them with extensive grasslands: North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and Oregon. No state has exalted the eastern meadowlark in the same way. ADVERTISEMENT There is a third meadowlark species in North America, the Chicuahuan meadowlark, also called Lillian’s meadowlark.
It occurs in the desert Southwest, including west Texas and southern New Mexico and Arizona, as well as the Mexican state of Chihuahua. South America has meadowlarks, too, three species of them, all of them red-breasted but otherwise quite similar to North American meadowlarks. Note This week’s sketch is a rerun from March 2017.
I’ve made many drawings of western meadowlarks, and this is my favorite. Jacobs is a retired publisher and editor of the Herald. Reach him at mjacobs@polarcomm.
com..
