Red-breasted Meadowlark
Leistes militaris
This attractive meadowlark is found in open fields. It often perches conspicuously atop grasses or small bushes. Male is unmistakable, mostly black with bright red breast and throat. Female is less obvious. She is brown and streaky, but look for the sharply pointed bill (like a blackbird), overall buffy brown coloration, and brown-and-buff stripes on head. The streaking is mostly concentrated on the sides of the breast and flanks, not in the middle of the breast and belly. Listen for song: several metallic chips followed by a raspy buzz.
Identification
The red-breasted meadowlark is a small icterid, 19 cm (7.5 in) long and weighing 40–48 g (1.4–1.7 oz). Males are larger than females. The male has mainly black plumage, apart from a bright red throat, belly and wing epaulets. This striking "redcoat" plumage gives rise to the specific name militaris and the Trinidadian name "soldier bird". The female has buff edged dark brown upperpart feathers, buff underparts with a reddish tinge, and pale streaks through the crown and eye. Juveniles resemble the female, but are paler and lack the reddish tint to the underparts.<p>This species is very closely related to the white-browed meadowlark, S. superciliaris which breeds further south, and was formerly considered to be subspecies of red-breasted meadowlark. The male white-browed is easily distinguished by his bright white supercilium, but females of the two species are almost identical. Female red-breasted meadowlarks are longer billed, smaller, and shorter winged than their relative, with more red and less streaking on the underparts.
Taxonomy
The red-breasted meadowlark was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the buntings in the genus Emberiza and coined the binomial name Emberiza militaris. Linnaeus cited his own catalogue of the cabinet of curiosities belonging to the king of Sweden, Adolf Frederick, as well as the description and illustration of the "Greater Bull-Finch" by the English naturalist George Edwards's that had been published in 1747. Neither Edwards nor Linnaeus knew the origin of their specimens but in 1902 the German ornithologists Hans von Berlepsch and Ernst Hartert designated type locality as Suriname. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
- Scientific name
- Leistes militaris
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Icteridae
- Genus
- Leistes
Range and habitat
The red-breasted meadowlark is resident from south-western Costa Rica, which it has recently colonised, and Trinidad, south to north-eastern Peru and central Brazil. In 2008, it was sighted for the first time in Nicaragua.<p>Like other meadowlarks, it is a bird associated with open country, including moist grasslands, pasture and cultivation, preferably with the odd bush or fence post for males to use as a songpost. It has benefited from the more open habitat created by forest clearance and ranching, and is extending its range. It is uncertain whether sightings on Tobago represent a small breeding population or wanderers from Trinidad or South America.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
In display the male flies up to 10 m (33 ft) in the air, then parachutes down on folded wings whilst singing a wheezing song, ti-ti-pee-pee-KWAAAAAA. The call is a short tsip. The red-breasted meadowlark builds a deep grass-lined open cup nest on the ground amongst tall grasses, with several nests often close together. The normal clutch is two to four reddish brown-blotched cream eggs.<p>This gregarious bird feeds mainly on insects and some seeds, including rice, and forages on the ground like a bobolink.
Conservation
- Population trend
- rising
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Yellow-browed Antbird
Hypocnemis hypoxantha
Rather small antbird with a disjunct distribution. Males have a yellow face and underparts with a black crown, eye-line, and streaks on the breast. Females have a yellow streaked crown. Southeastern subspecies has ochraceous lower underparts. Song is a descending and decelerating series of fluted notes becoming harsher at the end. Found in the understory of humid forests, often in areas of transitional forest or poor soils. Rarely accompanies mixed-species flocks. The similar Spix's and Peruvian Warbling-Antbirds have white breasts, and the song of Peruvian is somewhat slower-paced.
White-cheeked Partridge
Arborophila atrogularis
Appropriately-named; a gray-brown partridge with a bright white cheek patch. Like most other Arbrophila partridges, shy and seldom seen out in the open, usually moving about furtively under thick cover; sometimes crosses trails and openings, especially at dawn and dusk. Usually found in foothill habitats, including pristine primary forest, second growth, and even tea plantations. Song, usually heard late or early in the day, is a series of paired whistles.
Black-and-red Broadbill
Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchos
Utterly unmistakable inhabitant of waterside and riverine lowland evergreen forests, mangroves, and plantations. Midnight black with long white slashes on each wing, wine-red underparts, and a black chinstrap. Bulbous bill is glowingly powder-blue with warm tinges of orange and greenish-yellow. During the breeding season, the pendulous nests of this species can be quite obvious, hanging over forested waterways. Voice is nasal and generally unpleasant-sounding, consisting of odd low mechanical rasps.
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