Meadowlarks are

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses ( Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur na ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s belonging to genera ''

Sturnella The genus ''Sturnella'' are North American grassland birds called meadowlarks. The genus was previously lumped with the South American meadowlarks now placed in the genus '' Leistes''. It includes two or three species of largely insectivorous gr ...

'' and ''

Leistes The genus ''Leistes'' are predominantly South American grassland birds called meadowlarks. The genus was previously lumped with the North American meadowlarks in the genus ''Sturnella''. It includes five species of largely insectivorous grassla ...

''. This group includes seven species of largely

insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were ...

grassland birds. In all species the male at least has a black or brown back and extensively red or yellow underparts.

List of species

There is disagreement among authorities as to whether

Lilian's meadowlark Chihuahuan meadowlark (''Sturnella lilianae''), also known as Lilian's meadowlark, is a bird in the family Icteridae. It is found in northern Mexico and the southwestern portion of the United States. It was formerly usually treated as a subspeci ...

should be ranked as a full species or a subspecies. Red-breasted species, predominantly South American *

Red-breasted meadowlark The red-breasted meadowlark (''Leistes militaris'') is a passerine bird in the New World family Icteridae. It was formerly named red-breasted blackbird but is not closely related to the red-winged blackbird group. The red-breasted meadowlark is ...

(formerly red-breasted blackbird), ''Leistes militaris'' *

White-browed meadowlark The white-browed meadowlark (''Leistes superciliaris'') is a passerine bird in the New World family Icteridae. It was formerly named white-browed blackbird but is not closely related to the red-winged blackbird group. The white-browed meadowlar ...

(formerly white-browed blackbird), ''Leistes superciliaris'' *

Peruvian meadowlark The Peruvian meadowlark (''Leistes bellicosus'') is a species of bird in the family Icteridae. It is found in western Peru, Ecuador and far northern Chile. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrublands, subtropical or tropical ...

, ''Leistes bellicosa'' *

Pampas meadowlark The Pampas meadowlark (''Leistes defilippii'') is a species of bird in the family Icteridae. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Its natural habitats are temperate shrubland, pampas grassland, subtropical or tropical dry lowland gra ...

, ''Leistes defillippi'' *

Long-tailed meadowlark The long-tailed meadowlark (''Leistes loyca'') is a passerine bird of southern South America and the Falkland Islands, belonging to the meadowlark genus ''Leistes'' in the icterid family that looks very similar to the related endangered species ...

, ''Leistes loyca'' Yellow-breasted species, predominantly North American *

Eastern meadowlark The eastern meadowlark (''Sturnella magna'') is a medium-sized blackbird (family: Icteridae), very similar in appearance to sister species western meadowlark. It occurs from eastern North America to northern South America, where it is also most w ...

, ''Sturnella magna'' **

, ''S. m. lilianae'' *

Western meadowlark The western meadowlark (''Sturnella neglecta'') is a medium-sized icterid bird, about in length. It nests on the ground in open grasslands across western and central North America. It feeds mostly on bugs, but will also feed on seeds and berri ...

, ''Sturnella neglecta''

Taxonomy

As a group, the meadowlarks have had a volatile taxonomic history. When

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

described the eastern meadowlark (the first of the meadowlarks to be scientifically described) in his epic

10th edition of Systema Naturae The 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' is a book written by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus and published in two volumes in 1758 and 1759, which marks the starting point of zoological nomenclature. In it, Linnaeus introduced binomial nomencl ...

in 1758, he thought it was related to the

Old World The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by thei ...

lark Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark oc ...

s, and so put it in the genus ''

Alauda ''Alauda'' is a genus of larks found across much of Europe, Asia and in the mountains of north Africa, and one of the species (the Raso lark) endemic to the islet of Raso in the Cape Verde Islands. Further, at least two additional species are ...

'' with them. In the same work, he put the red-breasted meadowlark in the bunting genus ''

Emberiza The buntings are a group of Old World passerine birds forming the genus ''Emberiza'', the only genus in the family Emberizidae. The family contains 45 species. They are seed-eating birds with stubby, conical bills. Taxonomy The family Emberizid ...

''. Less than a decade later, he described the eastern meadowlark again, this time putting it into the

starling Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. The Sturnidae are named for the genus '' Sturnus'', which in turn comes from the Latin word for starling, ''sturnus''. Many Asian species, particularly the larger ones, ...

genus '' Sturnus'', which

Juan Ignacio Molina Fr. Juan Ignacio Molina (; (June 24, 1740 – September 12, 1829) was a Chilean Jesuit priest, naturalist, historian, translator, geographer, botanist, ornithologist, and linguist. He is usually referred to as Abate Molina (a form of Abbot Moli ...

also used when he first described the long-tailed meadowlark in 1782. In 1816,

Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot Louis Pierre Vieillot (10 May 1748, Yvetot – 24 August 1830, Sotteville-lès-Rouen) was a French ornithologist. Vieillot is the author of the first scientific descriptions and Linnaean names of a number of birds, including species he collec ...

created the genus ''Sturnella'', moving the meadowlarks into his new taxon. Most

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are give ...

s accepted the new genus, and the western meadowlark, Peruvian meadowlark and Lilian's meadowlark were all placed in this taxon when they were later described. When Charles Lucien Bonaparte described the white-browed meadowlark and pampas meadowlark, however, he assigned them to another newly created genus — ''Trupialis'', for what he called "ground-starlings"; he moved the red-breasted meadowlark into that now-defunct genus as well. By the early 20th century, the meadowlarks were split again. Only the "yellow-breasted" meadowlarks (eastern and western meadowlarks, including Lilian's) remained in the genus ''Sturnella''. The red-breasted and white-browed meadowlarks were moved to the genus ''Leistes'', while the pampas meadowlark, Peruvian meadowlark and long-tailed meadowlark made up the genus ''Pezites'', which was established by

Cabanis Cabanis is the surname of: *George Cabanis (1815-1892), American politician *Jean Cabanis (1816–1906), German ornithologist *José Cabanis José Cabanis (2 March 1922 – 6 October 2000) was a French novelist, essayist, historian and magistrate ...

in 1851. By the late 20th century, all meadowlarks were lumped again in the genus ''Sturnella.'' In 2017, all the red-breasted species were moved to the genus ''Leistes''.

References

Sources

* * ''New World Blackbirds'' by Jaramillo and Burke,

External links

Sturnella videos, photos and sounds
on the Internet Bird Collection * * Bird common names

List of species

Taxonomy

References

Sources

Further reading

External links