Western Meadowlark

Delightful bird. Seen and heard often when I was growing up in rural Nebraska.

"The buoyant, flutelike melody of the Western Meadowlark ringing out across a field can brighten anyone's day, evident in the fact that it is also the state bird of Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Oregon"
http://www.ereferencedesk.com/resources/state-bird/nebraska....

All across the great plains, in summer they can be seen sitting on fenceposts and singing. The liquid song is my favorite of all birdsongs.

This is the first year we can say this bird nested on our property. They brought their young to our yard after they were able to leave the nest. The young Western Meadowlarks look much like the adults, but are much paler.

There are minor field mark differences between the Western and Eastern Meadowlarks, but the song of the Western is definitely more melodic than the Eastern.

I often give a positive rating for most of North America's native birds, just because. In this case, these birds do provide a great service for us. They eat grubs and even though we've never used a chemical pesticide here, we never had signs of any lawn damage from the grubs.

If you live in the right habitat and the weather conditions are just so, they are willing t... read moreo come into feeding areas during the winter. They will eat whatever seed is thrown on the ground. We saw them eat peanuts and dried mealworms, too.