The Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) is a stocky, medium-sized songbird of North America's grasslands and prairies, easily recognized by its bright yellow throat and breast crossed by a bold black V, set against mottled brown, black, and buff plumage on its back and wings that provides excellent camouflage in open fields. Found across western and central North America from southern Canada down through Mexico, it favors meadows, pastures, and prairie habitats where it forages on the ground for insects, seeds, and grain, often walking rather than hopping as it searches. The species is best known for its rich, flute-like song, a cascade of gurgling, melodic notes that carries across open country and has made it the state bird of six U.S. states, though it's frequently confused with its near-identical relative, the Eastern Meadowlark, with which it shares range overlap in the Great Plains; the two are most reliably distinguished by voice rather than appearance. During breeding season, males are notably territorial and polygynous, often mating with two or more females within a single territory, and both the male's song and a striking white-edged tail displayed in flight play key roles in courtship and territory defense.
