Western Meadowlark

I am not used to finding meadowlarks perched in trees. I usually think of them in pastures, perhaps on fence poles or atop small bushes. You can tell that this bird is a Western Meadowlark. Note that the yellow on the sides of the face extend above the base of the bill. Also it helps that Erika and I were in the Billy Frank Jr National Wildlife Refuge near Olympia, Washington (on 4 February 2021). Western Meadowlarks are birds of the West. Eastern Meadowlarks tend to be eastern. Generally. Both species are found in large parts of the Southwest. Eastern Meadowlarks are also found from Mexico well into South America. Western Meadowlarks breed east and overlap with the eastern species in the northern Great Plains, Minnesota, even as far east as western New York. Both meadowlarks winter through much of the central United States and northern Mexico.