Identification - This colorful songster is slightly smaller than a robin. It is a chunky, short-tailed bird that is brown above, yellow below. It has a black "V" on its breast and white outer tail feathers that are noticeable when it flies. It is almost identical to the Western Meadowlark but can best be separated by its song.
Morsels - Both the Eastern and Western Meadowlark display a camouflage called "countershading" where the underparts of the body are lighter than the upperparts. As light comes from above, the meadowlark casts a shadow on its own underparts making itself uniformly colored and more difficult to see. Meadowlarks also habitually crouch so that only their streaky grass colored backs are presented against a grassland background, rendering them almost invisible.
