Eastern Meadowlark

Description:

Eastern Meadowlarks are chunky, medium-sized songbirds with short tails and long, spear-shaped bills. In flight, their rounded wings, short tails, and long bills help set them apart from other grassland songbirds. Eastern Meadowlarks are pale brown marked with black, with bright-yellow underparts and a bold black V across the chest. Though most of the tail is brown with blackish barring, the outer feathers are white and conspicuous during flight.

Habitat:

Upper Texas Coast (UTC) 070 GALVESTON STATE PARK: Little remains of the once extensive barrier island habitats found along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of North America. Beach resorts, coastal homes, and other development now dominate these lands. The small amount of relatively pristine habitat found in Galveston Island State Park is an important resource for many bird species. The property is in the path of the migration flyway used by most of the bird species that seasonally travel between North and South America. In the spring many birds make their first landfall on the island after flying over the Gulf.

Notes:

Malar stripe at base of bill is bright yellow in Western, white in Eastern. Best separated by voice. Video has the song of the Meadowlark singing and hanging on to the juniper in very windy conditions.