How Oregon Designated Its State Bird

Nearly 100 years ago, schoolchildren picked Oregon’s state bird: the western meadowlark.

The Bird Alliance of Oregon, as the group is now known, sponsored a contest in 1927 to name a state bird and overwhelmingly kids voted for the western meadowlark, which garnered 40,000 of the 75,000 votes cast. The governor then designated the bird.

The western meadowlarks live in grasslands and nest in the ground. They can be “spotted” by their high sweet tune, though their yellow color sometimes helps birders lay eyes on them.

Here are few more fun facts about the species:

• Their nests can have a partial or full grass roof.
• The female birds tend to the young, and male birds usually have two mates during breeding season.
• They’re a member of the blackbird family — but obviously a colorful one.
• Like other members of the family, they have powerful beak muscles. They dig their beak into the ground or other material and wedge it open to create a hole to search for their insect prey.

Western meadowlarks are no longer common in the Willamette Valley, predominantly living in the eastern part of the state. (They’re not federally protected, but Oregon considers them a sensitive-critical species in the Willamette Valley)

As far as state birds go, it’s a popular one — with duties as the official bird in Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wyoming, as well. Only the northern cardinal is more in demand, with seven states to the western meadowlark’s six.