Description and ecology
Eastern Meadowlarks (Sturnella magna) are large (~25 cm) songbirds in the American Blackbird Family (Icteridae). It is the only Meadowlark species regularly observed in Ontario. Meadowlarks are typically found in tallgrass prairies, meadows, and shrublands – their preferred breeding habitat. Further north in Ontario, in Bruce County, Manitoulin, and Kawartha Lakes, Eastern Meadowlarks are an important species of alvars – grassy or shrubby habitats with scarce but unique vegetation, overlying shallow limestone bedrock. The breeding range of these birds extends through the Eastern United States, south through Mesoamerica into the Llanos wetlands of Colombia and Venezuela. While migratory in the northern edge of their breeding range, including Ontario, they are a year-round bird throughout most of their distribution.
Eastern Meadowlarks have a bright yellow throat, with a black V-shaped striped. The head is a mix of light brown, grey, or white, with a yellow stripe above the eye. Meadowlarks also have a long bill and a mottled brown back. Male Meadowlarks are slightly more vibrant in plumage colour than females. One of the most recognizable features of Eastern Meadowlarks is their birdsong – a series of clear, melodic, and often melancholy whistles. The pitch often lowers towards the end of a birdsong. Males do most of the singing, typically to attract mates and to defend a breeding territory. A common mnemonic memorized by ornithologists is “spring of the year”.
The breeding season begins in April for Eastern Meadowlarks. In May, these birds will create a nest comprised of grasses, stems, and other plant materials. It is placed on directly on the ground, measuring around 22 cm in width. The typical clutch size is between 2-7 eggs. In Ontario, one brood per year is typical for Eastern Meadowlarks, although two broods is not uncommon in the southern portion of their distribution. The incubation period is usually 15 days, with the nestling rearing period around 12 days. Eggs are white and speckled. Meadowlarks have high nest-site fidelity – they return to the same location year after year. Do not approach a nestling Meadowlark – she will abandon incubation if chased off the nest.
Considering dietary energy, Meadowlarks are primarily insectivorous birds. Some of their favorite foods are crickets, grasshoppers (both belonging to the order Orthoptera), and caterpillars (Lepidoptera). They will occasionally eat seeds if other foods are scarce, especially during the winter. Eastern Meadowlarks also forage for larvae of many insects, pushing their bill into the ground, opening it when their prey becomes accessible.
Eastern Meadowlarks were naturally distributed through the grasslands and meadows of Ontario – but were restricted to small areas due to the dense forests that covered most of the province. Considering human-induced disturbance, Meadowlarks adapt well to some human-managed landscapes, but not others. In the late 1800s, Meadowlarks populations likely expanded in Ontario following the clearing of dense forests into pastures for livestock – suitable, open-vegetation habitat for these songbirds. The species thrived in many areas for decades, but since the 1990s, many pastures have been converted to intensely-managed monocultures, typically unsuitable foraging or nesting habitat for meadowlarks. North of Perth County, many pastures have been lost to reforestation rather than agricultural intensification, as a product of agricultural abandonment – although this is generally received positively by conservationists, dense forests are not suitable breeding habitat for grassland songbirds. Both these trends have led to a contraction of Eastern Meadowlark populations over the past few decades. Thus, Eastern Meadowlark is designated as Threatened on COSSARO.
Locally in Norfolk County, Eastern Meadowlark populations show good potential for recovery. Firstly, recently donated / acquired conservation lands are usually converted from marginal row crops to tallgrass prairie habitat. These restored prairies are particularly extensive in some areas, such as Walsignham and Houghton in Norfolk County. Long Point Basin Land Trust owns over 50 acres (20 acres) of these grasslands, with Nature Conservancy of Canada managing over tenfold (500 acres, 200 ha). All of these newly restored tallgrass prairies are good habitat for Meadowlarks. While many of these grasslands will naturally convert to forest or oak savanna through ecological succession, some areas will be specifically managed for tallgrass prairie habitat (using stewardship techniques such as prescribed burns, woody vegetation removal), and other parcels are likely to be donated in the future, allowing ample supply of habitat for Eastern Meadowlarks and other grassland birds.
Fun facts
- Eastern Meadowlarks are hard to spot when they’re on the ground. Their intricately streaked brown plumage provides effective camouflage within the vegetation of tallgrass prairies.
- These birds are not actually larks at all! True larks (such as the Horned Lark, Eremophila alpestris), are members of the Sylvioidea lineage, which also includes Old-World Warblers (Sylviidae, Phylloscopidae, etc.), and Swallows (Hirundinidae)
- Female meadowlarks find existing depressions in the ground, rather than evacuating a cavity, to form the ba. She then intricately builds the nesting structure around it.
Written by Matthew Palarchio, HBSc in Environmental Sciences, Western University
All photos are Stock photos retrieved from Canva
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