Sturnella neglecta

The western meadowlark is a medium-sized icterid bird, about 20 cm (7.9 in) in length. It is found across western and central North America and is a partial migrant, breeding in western Canada and western United States west of the Great Lakes, and in northern Mexico. In the northern half of the breeding range, the birds migrate south for the winter, while further south they are resident all year. The winter range also extends south and southeast of the breeding range, as far as central Mexico, and east to western Florida. The western meadowlark nests on the ground in open grasslands and shrublands. It feeds on bugs and seeds. The western meadowlark has distinctive calls described as watery or flute-like, which distinguish it from the closely related eastern meadowlark. The western meadowlark is the state bird of six states; in Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wyoming.

Sturnella neglecta

Cephas · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
western meadowlarkPBDB
Sits inside
SturnellaPBDB
Diet
insectivore, frugivorePBDB, for Icteridae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Icteridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Icteridae
Mass
6.2 gWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 2.6 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.58 Mya and 11.7 ka, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Pliocene — about 0 of 12 occurrencesPleistocene — about 12 of 12 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 12 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.0 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.0 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 7 occurrences3.08 Mya0 Mya

12 occurrences of Sturnella neglecta on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

12 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

San Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Sturnella neglecta has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sturnella neglecta and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Sturnella neglecta and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

383 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Sturnella neglecta, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

7 references

Each of the 12 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Sturnella neglecta

Credit
Cephas
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itSturnella through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Audubon 1844