This is a bird note.

With their bright yellow breasts and

with their bright yellow breasts and superlative songs.

Meadowlarks are among our most familiar and cherished birds.

The Eastern Meadowlarks clear whistled music is the unmistakable anthem of

Eastern North America's farmlands and open country.

The Western Meadowlark and its sweet liquid notes epitomize the natural expanses of the American West.

Sadly, both metallarks face ominous threats.

True to their name, they are birds of meadows and grasslands.

Birds of such grassy habitats are among the fastest declining species in North America.

How could this happen?

Well, with most native grasslands transformed by settlement and farming,

medallarks have turned to pastures in hay fields as habitat, but here

their nesting is often disturbed by over-razing, the cutting of hay, and seasonal burning.

More permanently disruptive, vast tracts of farmland are succumbing to suburban development.

The Meadowlark's best hope for the future are succumbing to suburban development.

The Meadowlark's best hope for the future

lies in farmland and grassland conservation.

There are agricultural practices that are compatible

with the needs of birds, such as delaying hay cutting until nesting birds have fledged.

And the Conservation Reserve Program enables landowners to keep their acreage in grasslands.

For Bird Note, owners to keep their acreage in grasslands.

...