Kansas State Bird: Western Meadowlark

Many state-bird laws simply name a species and move on. Kansas did something more specific. K.S.A. 73-901 still carries the phrase "as preferred by a vote of Kansas school children" — the route into law is preserved inside the statute itself, not just in historical footnotes.

That wording matters because it changes what the symbol is. The meadowlark did not enter state law as a wildlife designation or an expert recommendation. It entered as a recorded public preference, and the law kept that on record.

Kansas already had a strong visual emblem before 1937. The sunflower had been the official state flower since 1903 and defined how Kansas looked in public life.

The meadowlark filled a different role. Its song — the sound people associated with open country, fence lines, and unbroken distance — gave Kansas an audible identity to go alongside the sunflower's visual one. The two symbols do different work: one is seen, one is heard.

Oregon and Wyoming adopted the Western Meadowlark in 1927, Nebraska in 1929, and Montana in 1931. Kansas followed in 1937, and North Dakota came later still. By the time Kansas designated the meadowlark, it was joining an established Great Plains pattern rather than pioneering one.

Among those six states, Kansas's statute is the one that preserved the public vote in its text. Oregon, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Montana designated the bird through standard legislative action. Kansas's law still says who chose it and how — which gives the Kansas entry a distinct character even in a field of five other states using the same species.