This is Bird Note.

Along a country road in Kansas on a summer morning, there's a bird on the fence line singing an odd song.

Half insect, half sci-fi blaster, this song belongs to a bird called the Dixisle, whose name spelled out the syllables of its quirky song.

Like other birds in the Cardinal family, Dixisles have large triangular beaks, but otherwise they have a unique appearance, with yellow breasts, brown wings, and males sporting a black patch on their throats.

Dixisles are approachable birds, often chirping away while a person walks nearby, but they're also masters of concealment.

Dixisles usually make their nest near the ground. They use leafy wildflower and grass tuffs to hide their eggs from the many creatures hunting for them, snakes, ground squirrels, and raccoons to name a few.

Dixisle populations have fallen by 30% since the 1960s. They've lost many of their breeding habitats and are treated as agricultural pests on their wintering grounds in Venezuela.

Yet the birds persist in searching for places to breed, nesting along road sides and pastures, and even in alfalfa fields.

If you're in the Central U.S. this summer, look and listen for this emblem of grassland habitats.

For bird note, I'm Ariana Rimmel.