The sweet song of the eastern meadowlark
Bird welcomes spring to the prairie with 100 melodies
The Eastern meadowlark seems to have a flute for voice. Its inimitably sweet melody sounds like the words spring-ofthe-year.
Yet meadowlarks can sing about 100 varying melodies, each song announcing a blossoming prairie and signaling Earth’s awakening from winter and the renewal of life.
Male meadowlarks may sing while standing on the prairie or more typically while perched above the prairie on a fence post, power line or tall bush. Yet the birds do not usually sing on their breeding territory as do many other songbirds. They instead belt out songs along the periphery of their breeding territory.
Females respond to the songs of males with a high-pitched chattering call, but each female’s call is directed toward a chosen male and not to other males. Somehow, the male knows which female is responding to his song, and the two pair up and stay together throughout nest building and chick rearing.
No matter how lark-sounding the song, meadowlarks are not in the same family as larks of the Old World. European settlers allegedly heard a song similar to that of skylarks in their homeland and thought America’s prairie songsters were larks-ofthe-meadow.
But meadowlarks are members of the New World family of blackbirds and orioles. Their long, spikelike beaks tell us of their kinship to birds with similar beaks, such as red-winged blackbirds and northern orioles.
Meadowlarks are about the size of mockingbirds but can be difficult to see unless they’re perched in the open on a fence post. Their topsides are crypti-
cally plumed with mottled brown and buff accented with black bars to match the hues of a prairie.
Underneath, the birds show a yellow chin, throat, breast and belly that matches the color of yellow prairie flowers. A black V on the breast punctuates the pattern.
The birds strut over the prairie on long legs and big feet. They scrounge the ground for insects such as grasshoppers or crickets and also for a favored spring diet of worms.
They’ll poke their pointed beaks into the ground and then open the beaks like a pair of scissors to gouge a hole to find insects and worms. Their beaks can also pry apart leaf litter to get at insects.
The female builds a nest by weaving grasses into the shape of a bowl, often installing a cover like a lid on top. She may construct a grass tunnel up to 3 feet long leading to the nest to secure it from predators.