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No song epitomizes the open spaces of the American West like that of the Western Meadowlark. Indeed, the song of the Western Meadowlark can be rightly acclaimed the essential musical theme of much of the West. It's a bird of grass - and sage-lands, fields and pastures, meadows and prairies - a bird of open habitats. Look, but especially listen, for meadowlarks in the open country and natural prairies of the West.
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BirdNote®
Singing with Meadowlarks
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote!
[Western Meadowlark song]
No song epitomizes the open spaces of the American West like that of the Western Meadowlark. No other song even comes close. [Western Meadowlark song] Indeed, the Western Meadowlark’s song can be rightly acclaimed the essential musical theme of much of the West. [Western Meadowlark song] Even its name has a lovely ring.
About the size of a robin but more chunky and with a shorter tail, the Western Meadowlark is a bird of grass- and sage-lands, fields and pastures, meadows and prairies – a bird of open habitats. A black V-shaped bib offsets the meadowlark’s glowing yellow breast and belly. Its colorful plumage, slender sharp bill, and sweet, gurgled song hint strongly at its close kinship with orioles and blackbirds.
Fortunately for us, a song of such sustained, rich, liquid whistles at contrasting pitches gives the meadowlark’s singing acoustic qualities that carry over long distances. [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.
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
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Call of the Western Meadowlark provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by W.R. Fish and G.A. Keller.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2010 Tune In to Nature.org May 2010
ID# 052207WEMEKPLU WEME-01
Sights & Sounds
