Sturnella lilianae
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
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 →
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United States · 2025
© heloderma · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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United States · 2023
© Christopher Rustay · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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United States · 2025
© Davis Provan · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Big Bend National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mexico City | 🇲🇽 México |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Chihuahuan Meadowlark sighting in Mexico City on a given day, based on 152 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 211th most-seen of the 332 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Chihuahuan Meadowlark in Mexico City on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Chihuahuan Meadowlark sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Mexico City, in our data
Mexico City is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Chihuahuan Meadowlark sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Icteridae
The closest relatives of the Chihuahuan Meadowlark that you can see in Mexico City (family Icteridae, New World Blackbirds and Orioles) are Great-tailed Grackle (about 70%), Bronzed Cowbird (about 20%) and Black-backed Oriole (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Chihuahuan Meadowlark is recorded against all the birds logged in Mexico City (152 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
