#meadowlark

Currently incapable of shutting up about yaelokre (on account of my art being appreciated by them holy fuckkkk) so here's a half-baked meme about the ✨️foreword tour experience✨️

Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna), HE SCREMMM!!!, family Icteridae, order Passeriformes, Eastern U.S.

the western meadowlark is a medium-sized passerine bird, found year-round in western & central north america, with their breeding range extending north into canada, and their wintering range extending into mexico. they are the state bird of 6 u.s. states - kansas, montana, nebraska, north dakota, oregon, and wyoming. they are very visually similar to the closely related eastern meadowlark, but can be distinguished by their watery or flute-like calls; the eastern meadowlark’s calls are simpler whistles. there are also some differences in plumage between the two, although it can be difficult to differentiate them from a distance in the field. adults have mainly brown upperparts with some black streaking. they have cheery yellow undersides with a black ‘V’ marking emerging from each shoulder and meeting in the center of the chest. they have sharp, pointed bills, which are used to probe for insects, the majority of their diet. in winter, they often feed in larger flocks, and diversify their diets to include more seeds and berries. with the western meadowlark preferring grassland habitat, like prairie or pastures, the female often chooses a dip in the ground in which to make her nest, like a cow hoofprint. females shape this dip into a cup-like shape, then line the cup with vegetation such as pieces of shrubbery and dry grasses. although some nests lack a ‘roof’, many meadowlark mothers use the vegetation surrounding the nest to weave with other materials, creating a hood or dome to protect the young from inclement weather. it can take six to eight days for a female western meadowlark to finish constructing her nest. despite the amount of effort put in to constructing their nests, meadowlarks are incredibly suspicious of humans, and will often abandon a nest with eggs entirely if it is disrupted by human activity.