What States Have the Western Meadowlark as Their State Bird

Six states have officially designated the Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) as their state bird: Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wyoming. You may be wondering why the Western Meadowlark became Oregon’s state bird, and the answer comes down to its long-standing connection to the state’s natural habitats and birding history. No other U.S. state uses this species, making it the most shared state bird in the country alongside the Northern Cardinal (also claimed by seven states).

The full list of Western Meadowlark states

Every one of those designations uses the scientific name Sturnella neglecta in the statutory or legislative language, which matters because there is a closely related lookalike (more on that below). Wyoming and Oregon both adopted the meadowlark in 1927, making them the earliest adopters in this group.

How to verify the designation yourself

If you want to confirm any of these directly from official sources rather than taking a summary's word for it, here is exactly where to look for each state.

• Kansas: Search the Kansas Legislature's statute site for 'western meadow lark' (the statute spells it as two words). The designation text explicitly includes 'Sturnella-Neglecta (Audubon).'
• Montana: Look up Montana Code Annotated section 1-1-504 on the official state code or a legal mirror like Justia. The text reads: 'The bird known as the western meadowlark, Sturnella neglecta (Audubon) ... shall be designated the official bird of the state of Montana.'
• Nebraska: The Nebraska Secretary of State's State Symbols page lists 'Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)' and gives 1929 as the year of legislative action. The Nebraska Blue Book (2024-25 edition) confirms the same.
• North Dakota: The North Dakota Game and Fish species page for the Western Meadowlark lists the scientific name Sturnella neglecta alongside the state-bird designation. The 1954 North Dakota Blue Book documents the 1947 Thirtieth Legislative Assembly action.
• Oregon: Search the Oregon Legislative Information System for SCR 18 from the 2017 Regular Session. The enrolled measure formally designates 'the western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) as the official state songbird.' Oregon's Department of Fish and Wildlife also confirms the original 1927 designation.
• Wyoming: The Wyoming Secretary of State's StateInfo_Symbols page lists the meadowlark and gives the adopted date of February 5, 1927. The page also notes the distinction between Eastern meadowlark (Sturnella magna) and Western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta), which is unusually explicit for a state symbols page.

How to identify a Western Meadowlark in the field

Knowing the species matters here because the Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna) looks almost identical. When you are looking at a meadowlark, here are the field marks and cues that confirm it is the Western species.

• Bright yellow breast with a bold black 'V' across the chest — this is the most immediately recognizable feature on both meadowlark species, but it is vivid and sharply defined on the Western.
• Yellow throat extending slightly farther up into the face than on the Eastern Meadowlark. This is subtle but reliable when you can get a clear look.
• Song is the single most reliable separator: the Western Meadowlark sings a rich, gurgling, complex flute-like melody. The Eastern Meadowlark's song is a simpler four-note whistle. If you can hear it, you can identify it.
• Habitat: Western Meadowlarks favor open grasslands, prairies, and rangelands across the western half of the U.S. If you are in Kansas, Wyoming, Montana, or the Dakotas, a meadowlark in open country is almost certainly the Western species.
• Winter plumage is a bit duller and less vivid, so if you see a meadowlark outside of breeding season, focus on the face pattern and song rather than color intensity alone.

States with similar birds: avoiding mix-ups

The Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna) is the species you are most likely to confuse with the Western. No U.S. state has designated the Eastern Meadowlark as its state bird, so if a state has a meadowlark on its official symbols list, it is the Western species. That said, range overlap does exist in the central Great Plains, so if you are birding in eastern Kansas or Nebraska, both species can potentially appear in the same county.

The Northern Cardinal is another commonly shared state bird, claimed by seven states (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia). So while the Western Meadowlark's six-state count is notable, it is not completely alone as a widely shared symbol. Beyond meadowlarks and cardinals, no other species comes close to that level of sharing among state birds.

Why so many states picked the same bird

There are a few consistent reasons why the Western Meadowlark kept winning state bird votes across the Great Plains and Mountain West, and they hold up across all six states.

1. It was already everywhere. The Western Meadowlark is native to open grasslands across the entire western half of the U.S., so it was genuinely familiar to residents in all six states, not an exotic or regional novelty.
2. Schoolchildren drove the votes. Oregon's 1927 designation came directly from a vote organized by schoolchildren, ratified by the Legislature. Similar school-based or public contests shaped choices in other states. The meadowlark was a bird kids actually knew and recognized.
3. The song made an impression. The complex, flute-like call is one of the most distinctive sounds of western prairies. It was associated with open spaces, farming landscapes, and the character of the region in a way that more generic birds were not.
4. It was a symbol of the working landscape. Meadowlarks nest in grasslands and associate closely with agricultural prairie, so they resonated with farm communities that made up the majority of the population in these states during the early 20th century when most designations happened.
5. Timing: most of these designations happened between 1927 and 1947, a period when state-symbol adoption was popular nationwide, and neighboring states likely influenced each other's choices.

Each state has its own specific legislative story. Wyoming and Oregon both acted in 1927. Kansas, Montana, and Nebraska followed within a few years. North Dakota came last in 1947. If you want to dig into the story for a specific state, the reasons why Wyoming chose the meadowlark and why Kansas or Oregon made the same call each have their own interesting historical threads worth exploring. To understand why the Western Meadowlark became the state bird of Wyoming specifically, it helps to look at the timing and the local historical reasons behind the 1927 vote why is the western meadowlark the state bird of wyoming. If you are wondering why is the western meadowlark the state bird of Kansas, that Kansas-specific history is one of the most interesting threads to follow.

Find your state bird fast: next steps

If you landed here while trying to look up a specific state's bird or confirm a detail for school, trivia, or a nature project, here is a quick checklist for getting to the right answer quickly.

1. Start with the state's Secretary of State website or official state symbols page. Every state maintains one, and most list the scientific name alongside the common name.
2. Cross-check with the state's fish and wildlife or game and fish department. North Dakota Game and Fish, Oregon DFW, and similar agencies often include species identification details alongside the state-bird designation.
3. If you need the actual statute, search the state legislature's code using the scientific name (e.g., 'Sturnella neglecta') or the common name. This is the most authoritative confirmation you can get.
4. Use this site's individual state pages to quickly look up any of the 50 states. Each page covers the official designation, the reasons behind the choice, and key identification facts for the species.
5. If you are comparing two states that share a bird (like any two of the six meadowlark states), check whether there are any differences in how or when each state designated the species. Wyoming's page and Oregon's page, for example, have different historical stories even though they adopted the same bird in the same year.

The bottom line: if you see 'Western Meadowlark' on a state symbols list, you are looking at Sturnella neglecta, and it belongs to one of exactly six states: Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wyoming. Every one of those designations is backed by statute or enrolled legislative resolution, and every one can be verified directly through that state's official government sources.