Oregon State Bird: Western Meadowlark

Most Oregon symbols came from the Legislature. The meadowlark did not. In 1927 the Oregon Audubon Society organized a statewide election among schoolchildren, and the Western Meadowlark won by a large margin.

Governor Isaac L. Patterson then proclaimed the bird official. Oregon sources say that made the meadowlark the only Oregon symbol not originally chosen by the Legislature.

Oregon's state bird began as a public school vote carried into office by proclamation, not as one more item in a statute book — a different origin than any other Oregon symbol.

The choice made sense to the children who voted on it. Oregon sources say the bird won roughly 40,000 of 75,000 ballots, which suggests it was more than a narrow favorite.

The reason was not exclusivity alone. The meadowlark was already easy to hear and recognize in Oregon's open country, especially in farm regions where its song was part of ordinary spring and summer life.

The bird worked because schoolchildren could already connect it to the Oregon they knew — not because lawmakers needed a rare or technical species.

By 2017 the meadowlark was no longer politically untouchable. Lawmakers considered replacing it with the osprey, arguing that the osprey felt more distinctive and more familiar to modern Oregon.

Oregon did not settle that debate by throwing the old bird out. Instead, Senate Concurrent Resolution 18 kept the Western Meadowlark and named it the official state songbird, while also designating the osprey as the official state raptor.

The meadowlark survived not by inertia, but as the bird whose 1927 schoolchildren story was still worth keeping — retitled rather than replaced.