Chihuahuan Meadowlark

About the Chihuahuan Meadowlark

The Chihuahuan meadowlark (Sturnella lilianae), also known as Lilian's meadowlark, is a bird in the family Icteridae, the oropendolas, New World orioles, and New World blackbirds. It is found in Mexico and the United States.

The Chihuahuan meadowlark was formally described in 1930 by the American ornithologist Harry C. Oberholser as a subspecies of the eastern meadowlark based on a holotype that had been collected in the Huachuca Mountains of Arizona. Oberholser proposed the trinomial Sturnella magna lilianae. The subspecific epithet lilianae was chosen to honor Lilian Hanna Baldwin (wife of ornithologist Samuel Prentiss Baldwin), as she had presented the Cleveland Museum of Natural History the collection of birds that included the type specimen of the new subspecies.

The Chihuahuan meadowlark's further taxonomy is unsettled. A 2021 publication detailed morphological, vocal, and genomic differences between the Chihuahuan meadowlark and the other subspecies of the eastern meadowlark. Based largely on it, in 2022 the American Ornithological Society, the Clements taxonomy, and the IOC recognized two of the subspecies of the eastern meadowlark as the Chichuahuan... Wikipedia →