I posted this as a western, but the lilianae race of the eastern occurs here as well and is described as having more white in the tail. Is anyone here skilled at differentiating between the eastern and western, other than by call? Unfortunately, this bird was silent.

That to me looks like an Eastern Meadowlark. If you can see, the yellow stops at his throat. With the Western the yellow goes partially up his face, so there is more yellow, than white on it's face. I knew that spending five years on this subject would come in handy someday! Let's see what Jim thinks.

I sent the photo to a local bird guide this morning. Here is his reply: "The bird appears to be the Iliana race of the Eastern Meadowlark which does nest in Arizona around the rest stop. Lots of BRIGHT yellow on the breast and throat. Completely white face (a field mark of Iliana) except for the yellow lore. The pattern on the back would have been distinctly marked where the Western Meadowlark is a washed out brown but this was not shown on the photo. The Western Meadowlark has a less distinct yellow on the breast and throat. Eastern Meadowlarks have three white feathers on each side of the tail, Western Meadowlarks have 2 to 2 1/2 white feathers on each side of the tail. Thus Eastern shows a lot more white when they fly when they spread their tail. With a little practice this becomes obvious." So eastern it is - and I'm changing my sighting. But I'll leave my erroneous post up for a while for the information it affords.

Ahh so! Very good. I've been trying for years to be able to distinguish tough cases like this. Good to know that my hard work has actually paid off!

-we only have the Western in our area but now I know much more about the debate. First, "flighty should have got the bird to sing!! HA! I think Tawny's comment that "the yellow stops at the throat" in the Eastern is a key characteristic; Peterson refers to this as "yellow of throat does not invade the cheek"; What we need now is for our photo guys to capture us a specimen shot of both so that we can all compare them!

I see that ru4real posted a beautiful photo of a western meadowlark on April 13, 2007, perfect for comparison.

Ha! Thank you, Jim. "The yellow throat does not invade the cheek" is a great statement. I'll have to remember that for future use. I need to go out to the country and get some pictures of some Eastern so I can compare them.