Song The eastern meadowlark, feeds on insects and worms, probing for them in the soil by inserting its closed bill into the ground and then forcing it open. Differences between Eastern Meadowlark, Sturnella magna, and Western Meadowlark, S. neglecta.
Similar to Western Meadowlark. In winter, Eastern is more likely to be alone, rather than in a flock, and favors more extensive, pristine grasslands than Western. The birds themselves sing from fenceposts and telephone lines or stalk through the grasses, probing the ground for insects with their long, sharp bills.
Eastern meadowlarks are sedentary throughout much of their breeding range, and pairing tends to occur in early April. Bobolink.
Hooded oriole.
On the ground, their brown-and-black dappled upperparts camouflage the birds among dirt clods and dry grasses. Thanks to Doug van den Bergh.
All pictures below were taken by Kevin J. McGowan of specimens from the Ornithology Collections at the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates . Bronzed cowbird. Although the birds look almost identical, the Western has a yellow malar stripe between the yellow throat and white cheek; the malar stripe in the Eastern Meadowlark is white. Common grackle.
Baltimore oriole. The Eastern Meadowlark is not, however, a true lark. I woke up this morning with a little tiny hangover & thought, oh it's meadowlark day. Although Western Meadowlarks seldom sing more than 10–12 songs, their eastern counterparts exhibit a much larger repertoire of 50–100 song variations. Recorded by W.R. Rather, it is a member of the blackbird family.
In areas where its range overlaps with the Eastern Meadowlark, the song is usually diagnostic, though I once heard what sure looked like one bird sing both songs, in Port Wing, Wisconsin. The sweet, lazy whistles of Eastern Meadowlarks waft over summer grasslands and farms in eastern North America. Similar looking birds to Eastern Meadowlark: Western Meadowlark Breeding adult, Western Meadowlark Breeding adult, Bobolink Female/nonbreeding male, Savannah Sparrow Adult (Savannah) Photos comparing this bird species with similar or confusing species, including captions that point out specific differences to help confirm identification.
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler. Great-tailed grackle. Photo credits . This colorful member of the blackbird family flashes a vibrant yellow breast crossed by a distinctive, black, V-shaped band. The Eastern Meadowlarks (Sturnella magna) whistled their slow song from perches in low shrubs. See the Eastern Meadowlark's profile on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website. Male have a repertoire of songs, singing one song repeatedly for a … Bullock's oriole. [Western Meadowlark song] Look, but especially listen, for meadowlarks in the open country of Eastern Washington, and on the natural prairies south of Puget Sound. Brewer's blackbird. Poem.