This state is the 9th largest and 27th more populous state in the United States. It contains geographically diverse habitats such as forests, deserts, water bodies, shrubs, and even volcanos. The state of Oregon 1927 chose the Western meadowlark as their state bird.
Its scientific name is Sturnella neglecta. It is medium-sized, beautifully colored, and mostly a carnivorous bird. They prefer to consume bugs but if weather conditions are not appropriate, they can even survive on seeds and berries.
The reason behind
This bird is widely present in the open grasslands of the state of Oregon, and children love its presence. In 1927, a contest was conducted in which schoolchildren voted. The total strength of school-going children was 80,000 at that time and nearly more than half of them voted for western meadowlark.
In this way, this bird is selected as their state bird. Oregon shares the western meadowlark as its state bird with some other states including Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming.
Physical characteristics
It is a member of the blackbird family and enlightened the grassy areas of Oregon due to its yellow feathers covering the breast. A V-shaped band of black color is present as a characteristic feature. Their beak is gray and black.
Feathers are tan brown with white and black markings. The length of this bird from head to tail is 6.5 to 10 inches. The normal wingspan is 16 inches. Their weight ranges from 3 to 4 ounces.
Behavior
During day time, these birds are very active but at night they remain quiet. They usually sing during day time. They make their nests on the ground, shrubs and some grasses, etc. one can easily find them in thick shrubs and forests.
Just before the arrival of the breeding season, the breeding ground is established by the male partners before the arrival of females. Both the partners manage songs to meet. These sounds are also called mating calls. Females collect the nest material from the surroundings then they build their nests and start breeding there.
These birds breed with two females in a season. The males bring food for both the females and their young ones. In this way, chicks are reared. Once the chicks hatch from the eggs, both the parents spend their time protecting and feeding them. If anyone from the surroundings interrupts their privacy, the male partner chase that predator with noise irrespective of the size of the predator. The duty of the male partner is to protect both the female and his young ones.
Formation of communities
These birds form nuclear communities because there are two families per male. The birds are monogamous but mate with two females in a breeding season. They keep both families separately and feed them accordingly. The male partners are mostly busy in the process of hunting. They drop the food at each nest and the female then feeds the baby chicks.
The incubation period is of 13 to 16 days. Babies leave their nests when they become mature, in almost 2 weeks. The babies cannot fly but their parents help them in exploring the surrounding grasslands. The babies started flying at 5 to 6 weeks of age, then they explore and establish their hunting areas.
These are the migratory birds who spend their winter season in southern areas of the United States and Mexico. In the summer season, they fly towards the northern areas such as Canada. Sometimes the western meadowlark travel to the breeding grounds of the eastern meadowlark. These two subspecies can mate any time when needed.
Eating habits
Their diet is dependent on the availability of the food items around. These birds love to eat weeds, seeds, grains, bugs, and many other small insects. They can consume crickets, ants, beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and wasps.
In the wildlife, they eat a variety of foods such as fruits, seeds, berries, carrion, and some insects. Their diet majorly depends on fruits and seeds but they can eat animal meat too. Their feeding ingredients and pattern are largely dependent on environmental conditions and the accessibility of food items.
They are easily attracted to backyards by bushes of fruits, bird’s feeders, and dispersed seeds and berries. They are not hunters but can eat everything including humans’ feeds such as biscuits, bread, and snacks which are sometimes unhealthy for them. Seeds are their favorite food items of them.
They love to eat sunflower seeds containing black oil, safflower seeds, millet, nyjer seeds, cracked, broken sunflower seeds, chopped peanuts, corn, and peanut butter. The fats present in peanuts are an excellent source of energy. They are good at eating covered and chopped seeds into smaller chunks.
Insects
These birds help the gardeners and farmers by eating harmful pests of plants such as aphids, slugs, grasshoppers, cotton cutworms, snails, and bollworms. They love to eat some other insects including beetles, flies, crickets, katydids, spiders, butterflies, worms, centipedes, cicadas, moths, and mealworms, dragonflies, and leafhoppers. These birds can hunt bugs in the summer season. They prefer to eat ants, moths, sawflies, and bees.
Corn
Corns can be offered to doves every day.These seeds contain a high percentage of proteins and carbohydrates and help in improving digestibility. Broken corns are of high energy content and are very helpful in the growing period of young birds. Overeating a corn full diet should be avoided because it leads to fatty birds.
Oats
Oats are not having good taste but are required in moderate doses because they are best for the growth of their feathers. For the diets of laying birds, a small amount of oats is used. These seeds are very helpful in the winter season.
Other Seeds
These birds usually visit the ground in search of lower accessible shrubs and dispersed seeds. They break the seed and open it with their beak and engulf the whole Kernel inside. The seeds involve black oil sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, squash seeds, and 39 types of other seeds.
The sunflower seeds have a thin cover and are easy for them to break and eat the inner content of these seeds. These seeds are full of nutrition such as calcium, fiber, vitamin E, iron, fats, potassium, vitamin B, and proteins. The covered seeds are rich in oil, but hulled seeds do not.
These birds love to eat thick-shelled seeds and manufactured feed mixtures contain a large amount of these seeds. The uncovered sunflower seeds are the same as black oil sunflower seeds except for their outer cover which is removed in hulled seeds.
Diet of baby birds
The babies of these birds are dependent on high fat, high protein, and soft food such as beetles, crickets, grub, flies, and meat scraps. The parents often regurgitate food first and then offer it to their babies or give them whole soft foods. They are mostly fed with some soft worms and insects.
Before their independent lives, baby birds live in their nests for 25 to 30 days but their parents feed them further for 4 weeks after they leave the nest. When babies become independent, even then they live in the same territory as their parent’s area.
Water requirement
They should be supplied with an adequate water supply. The water should be fresh, clean, and free of harmful chemicals and dust. All the food utensils should be properly washed regularly. A running fountain should be there to attract these birds. If it is not possible then drinkers for birds should be arranged.
Eating habits in summer
During the warmer season, their food intake increases, and they eat seeds, plants, berries, and some other fruits. The rate of consuming insects also increases and they easily find insects that are abundant in number in the summer season. Wild bees are mostly used in the months of summer and spring season.
In one pick, these birds can consume hundreds of these insects. These birds move freely on the ground and branches of conifers with the help of their strong wings.
They have incredible memories of storing and finding food for the winter season. They are experts in stealing the babies and eggs of some birds from their nests. They are very social and move in groups and flocks including playing and chasing each other. They sometimes join flocks of other species.
How to attract them to the backyard?
Bird feeders having different fruits, seeds and insects are generally used to attract these birds in the backyard. If they find food somewhere they visit that place daily in search of food due to their in-build-clock.
A fresh birdbath is also available near the feeder and is necessary to attract them to the gardens. They can easily attract to the area we require. They only need water, food, and shelter to live in any place.
They eat the same food as they require in the wild. Items like insects and caterpillars are also present in residential places and woods. They are more attracted by berries and fruits instead of insects.
Feeders are having different types of seeds including sunflower seeds, peanuts, corns, almonds, safflower, suet, mealworms, almonds, and peanut butter. These tiny birds dig their claws in the flowers and enjoy their inside contents.
