Long-tailed Meadowlark

About the Long-tailed Meadowlark

The long-tailed meadowlark (Leistes loyca) is a passerine bird in the family Icteridae, the oropendolas, New World orioles, and New World blackbirds. It is found in Argentina, Chile, and the Falkland Islands. The long-tailed meadowlark has a complicated taxonomic history. It was formally described in 1782 with the binomial Sturnus Loyca [sic]. In the 1800s it was assigned to genus Sturnella, and for a time it and two other species were separated in genus Pezites. This genus was later again merged into Sturnella. In 2016 BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World assigned it to its current genus Leistes that had been erected in 1825. By 2019 the IOC, the Clements taxonomy, and the South American Classification Committee had also made the reassignment.

The long-tailed meadowlark has these four subspecies: L. l. loyca (Molina, 1782) L. l. catamarcanus (Zotta, 1937) L. l. obscurus (Nores & Yzurieta, 1979) L. l. falklandicus (Leverkühn, 1889) Long-tailed meadowlark males average 27 cm (11 in) long. Males weigh an average of 112 g (4.0 oz) and females 97 g (3.4 oz). Adult males of the nominate subspecies L. l. loyca have a... Wikipedia →