ML141790041

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

At about 10:30 A.M., I heard a typical Eastern Meadowlark song: See-You, See-You. In each pair of notes, the “see” was higher pitched than the “you,” and the second “you” was more drawn out than the first. We looked at it (a bird that was clearly a meadowlark and clearly the bird singing) through telescopes as it continued to sing, and we were able to see that the yellow throat did not extend up onto the face (ie, yellow not adjacent to base of lower mandible as on Western Meadowlark), and we also noted that the head striping looked rather black and white, bolder than the Westerns visible at that time. The face also appeared paler than that of a Western Meadowlark. The bird flew, giving off a rattle that was higher and less vigorous than that of the Western Meadowlarks we’d heard quite often. The white on the tail was quite obvious, making up about 2/3 of the spread tail (this was also often visible while bird perched and sang, as it often spread its tail at these times.) The bird started to sing again, but was now across a ditch, and we could not reach it. Finally, the bird flew even farther off, and we could not relocate it. On our return to the car, we heard it in the same area, but could not see it, and did not locate it. In total, we were able to see the bird’s tail spread in flight 3 times. Each time, the increased amount of white (vs the large number of Western Meadowlarks observed) was easily detectable. The song was hugely different from any song given by the surrounding Westerns. The rattle call was also distinctly different, though not as dramatically so as the song. It did not give any other call notes. Overall, we heard it sing 30+ times and heard it rattle 4+ times. IDENTIFICATION The song was a perfect match for Eastern Meadowlark (magna group) and was heard multiple times and heard well (zero, or near zero, wind). Of equal importance, the amount of white on the tail, which was evident much of the time the bird was singing, and when the bird flew, was outside the range of that of Western Meadowlark. Indeed, it seemed possibly within range of Lillian’s Eastern Meadowlark. The head pattern was also that of magna Eastern Meadowlark, and was bolder than what is depicted for Lillian’s. Thus, we all felt confident that this bird was/is an Eastern Meadowlark, and almost certainly of the magna group.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D300

ISO

640

Focal length

420 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/4000 sec

Dimensions

282 pixels x 256 pixels

Original file size

78.64 KB