Bird Gets

March 4, 2021

Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)

To get the worm, more important than being early is to work hard. This Western Meadowlark pecked the soil well over a hundred times, using its patented technique of spearing the soil with bill closed and then opening the bill forcefully to dig a hole (“gaping”). In the few minutes that I filmed it, the bird was rewarded twice with big fat wormlike morsels that it polished off in a second or two. John James Audubon in 1844 gave this bird the scientific name “Sturnella neglecta,” explaining that the Lewis and Clark expeditions of 1803-1806 neglected or ignored this bird, even though they saw it. It’s hard to imagine anyone disregarding this beautifully decorated ground nesting bird. No longer ignored, it’s the official state bird of Montana, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wyoming. To keep them here in their breeding season, which has almost begun, it’s important to maintain abundant grasslands and limit mowing.