The eastern meadowlark (Sturnella magna) is a lovely yellow-breasted bird with a black V on its chest. The name is a bit of a misnomer – meadowlarks are not larks at all, but rather members of the blackbird family. At least as the name implies, they do frequent meadows (and grasslands and hayfields).
During the 1700s and 1800s the meadowlark population increased as people cleared forests and turned it into farmland. It is difficult to imagine how common these birds were on farms in the 1800s. According to Neltje Blanchan in 1907:
Every farmer’s boy knows his father’s friend, the meadowlark … that keeps well hidden in the grass of the meadows or grain fields … No farmer who realizes what an enormous number of grasshoppers, not to mention other destructive insects, meadowlarks destroy, is foolish enough to let his mowing-machine pass over their nests if he can but locate them. By the time the hay is ready for cutting in June, the active meadowlark babies are usually running about through grassy runways, but eggs of the second brood too frequently, alas! meet a tragic end.
It may be difficult to imagine a time children wandered about in public spaces shooting guns at birds. But this is just what happened, according to William Brewster in Birds of the Cambridge Region:
The Meadowlark will ever be intimately associated in my mind with the level, grassy fields and meadows which, in my younger days, stretched uninterruptedly from the old reservoir on Highland Street, Cambridge, to Fresh Pond … the Larks invariably remained in the fields until late in the autumn, and in October I have seen as many as thirty or forty of them collected within the space of a single acre. We used to regard them as legitimate game and to hunt them eagerly and persistently. They afforded us many exciting and valuable lessons in the art of stalking, for we usually attempted to approach them in that way … crossing the more open spaces by crawling on hands and knees – or even wriggling, snake-fashion, on our stomachs – through the scanty herbage. Another plan, sometimes crowned by success but much oftener resulting in failure, was that of driving the flock towards some place where one or more of our number had been concealed. At evening we occasionally obtained flying shots at close range by stumbling on birds which had gone to roost in beds of matted meadow grass.
Eastern meadowlark populations have declined by a least 72 percent in the past 40 years – and the highest rates of decline are right here in the Northeast. Because meadowlarks build their nests on the ground in grasslands, pastures, hayfields, golf courses, meadows and near airports, their nests become victims of mowing, pesticides, trampling from livestock and urbanization.
In addition, domestic cats and dogs, as well as many other predators, eat the eggs or young chicks.
Eastern meadowlarks feed mostly in low vegetation on insects, including ones that are harmful to crops. In the fall, they eat more seeds, including ragweed seeds.
In the spring, males arrive at the nesting sites before the females. They stake out a territory and sing to defend it. People may notice the singing males perched on fenceposts, telephone wires or other lookout points. The male will chase away other males, unusually by competitive singing, but occasionally the dispute will escalate to fighting: In one instance recounted in a Smithsonian Institution bulletin from 1958 , two males “rolled about for a moment wrestling and stabbing with their feet locked together … After more than a minute of jabbing, one bird arose and flew, pursued hotly by the victorious contestant who gave a jubilant flight song during the chase.”
Once a female has chosen a worthy mate, she builds a nest in a small depression in the ground. She uses grasses to build the base of the nest. Then she weaves together more grasses to form an arched roof about 7 inches above the base. The roof will protect the chicks from rain and the harsh sun. One side of the nest is open so she can get in and out easily.
The female lays about four eggs, which she incubates for two weeks. She leaves the eggs only briefly in the warmest part of the day to find food for herself. She turns the eggs frequently, as often as five times per hour.
Robert L. Denig described one unusual nest near a Marine Corps rifle range in Wakefield in 1909:
The meadowlark built its nest directly in line with the target, so that the muzzle of the rifle of the man lying on the mound was directly over the nest and not more than two feet above it. At first, the birds would fly away; but as the practice continued they became more and more accustomed to the noise. As the time came for the eggs to hatch, one of the birds would remain on the nest throughout the firing, even when the gun was being discharged directly over its head. Finally, the eggs hatched, and the young birds were brought up, so to speak, “under fire.”
As soon as the chicks hatch, the parents feed them worms and small insects. The female mashes the insects and pushes the food down the throat of a chick. Then she incubates the chicks to keep them warm. If the chicks get hungry, she regurgitates food for them to eat. As the chicks become bigger, stronger and covered with more feathers, the female spends more time away from the nest collecting grasshoppers, caterpillars and even hard-shelled insects such as beetles. By this time, she feeds the hungry chicks every five minutes in the morning and every 15 minutes when it is hottest at midday. The female does most of the feeding. She averages about 100 trips per day to the nest.
By the third or fourth day, the chicks begin opening their eyes and face the opening in the side of the nest, anticipating a parent’s return with food. By the 12th day, the chicks leave the nest for good; however, the parents continue feeding them for a couple more weeks. At this point, the female may build a second nest, while the male takes over care of the first brood.
Although these birds are nowhere near as common in our area as they once were, they can still be spotted from time to time. Keep your eyes peeled near meadows and fields.
Reader photo
Barbara Bradley spotted this red admiral butterfly in Andover, Hampshire, England, in September.
Have you taken photos of our urban wild things? Send your images to Cambridge Day and we may use them as part of a future feature. Include the photographer’s name and the general location where the photo was taken.
Jeanine Farley is an educational writer who has lived in the Boston area for more than 30 years. She enjoys taking photos of our urban wild things.
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