Birds of Lewis & Clark

Clark’s Nutcracker (*Nucifraga columbiana*)

Birds of Lewis & Clark

Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, on their journey with the Corps of Discovery, observed and recorded many birds during their expedition (1804-1806). Their bird list included grouse, aquatic birds, upland birds, hawks and a woodpecker. They also chose the common names of two bird species, which they named after themselves: Clark’s Nutcracker and Lewis’s Woodpecker, as pictured above.

Image of Mountain Quail and Lewis’s Woodpecker from The Linda Hall

The personal writings and journals of the members of the Expedition identify ~135 different species of birds with reasonable certainty . . . . Perhaps the two co-leaders felt a special interest in birds because they knew, as did the others, that President Thomas Jefferson was an enthusiastic birdwatcher. Jefferson was keeping his own personal “life list” of birds as seen and positively identified around his home in Charlottesville, Virginia.[1]

Portraits of William Clark (left) and Meriwether Lewis

The Corps of Discovery Charter

The list of birds is indeed, impressive, especially when considering that the members of the Corps of Discovery were chartered by Jefferson with four distinct and enormous challenges:

1. Geography and Cartography — They were tasked with mapping the vast newly acquired Louisiana territory and the Pacific Northwest. In the process they meticulously recorded latitude, longitude, the flow of the Missouri River, its principal tributaries, and crucial mountain pass/portage locations.

2. Ethnography and Native American Diplomacy — Jefferson ordered the captains to make friendly contact with Native American nations and announce to them U.S. sovereignty over the lands. And, in the process, Jefferson wanted them to identify the Native tribes (names, populations, boundaries, languages, traditions, clothing, food, social laws and prevailing diseases) as well as to initiate Native American Diplomacy (as depicted in the “medals of friendship” given to the tribal leaders).

3. Economic and Commercial Opportunities — A primary economic motive for the Expedition was to evaluate how American merchants could capture the lucrative western fur trade from Great Britain. The Expedition was also instructed to check the soil quality for future agricultural viability and identified potential locations for trading posts and settlements.

4. Natural Sciences (beyond Birds) — The Corps was chartered to discover and preserve specimens of plant life, trees, and animals previously unknown to Euro-American science. (In addition to the 135 bird species, the Corps ultimately logged over 170 new plants and 120 animal species, including mammals like the grizzly bear and the prairie dog.) They recorded mineral deposits (such as salt, iron and coal), unique geological formations, fossils, and daily weather patterns, including temperature ranges and wind directions.

The map of the US, with the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis & Clark Expedition highlighted

Back to Bird Sightings

White Gull described by Meriwether Lewis

Lewis made drawings and wrote descriptions of gulls, vulture, grouse and many other species. While camping at Fort Clatsop, today’s Pacific Northwestern state of Oregon, Lewis describes aquatic birds: four seagulls, black cormorants, arctic loons, and western grebes.

Head of a vulture (condor) by Meriwether Lewis

Another bird they spotted included the Dusky Eagle-Owl, which is a sub-species of the Great Horned Owl, seen on the Clearwater River (Kooskooskee) on March 3, 1806, on their return trip. This owl is the darkest colored of all the horned owls.

Grouse Lek

More attention by naturalists is given to the species of grouse that the Expedition members spotted during a ritualistic lek. Both Meriwether Lewis and William Clark documented October 1, 1804 sightings of the sharp-tailed grouse and the sage grouse (called the cock-of-the-plains) during their expedition.

Image of a grouse, from Lewis’s account of the birds of the Rocky Mountains watered by the Columbia River

The sage grouse is known to perform elaborate mating rituals, including songs and dances on their breeding grounds during their noteworthy leks.[2]

Male grouse strutting his stuff at a Lek.

Clark’s Nightengale

Not all of the Lewis and Clark sightings or identifications of birds were accurate. For example: Clark’s Nightengale, known as the “mystery bird,” was heard one night by Clark and company. Exactly what bird species did their members hear? This particular “nightingale” sang all night on June 3, 1804. Capt. Clark and First Sergeant John Ordway heard the night call and named a small creek near that June, 1804 campsite “Nightingale Creek” in honor of the bird. Some called the bird a cardinal, others called it a thrush, veery or whip-poor-will. The bird’s true identity, according to ornithologists, remains unknown.

Northern Cardinal (*Cardinalis cardinalis*)

The historian and biologist Paul Cutright dismissed the idea of the bird being a cardinal, or other species, finally concluding that the bird’s identity was a mystery. Virginia Holmgren, who has studied the 135 species carefully, has proposed that the mystery bird could have been a hermit thrush, a veery, Chuck-will’s-Widow or a whip-poor-will. All good guesses for their secretive behavior and haunting calls, day and night.

Another guess, and the one where I have landed [122 years later (in 2026)] is that “Clark’s Nightengale” was a Northern Mockingbird. I believe it most probably was that distinguished and melodic night time singer.[3]

Northern Mockingbird (*Mimus polyglottos*) N.B. the Latin name means multilingual mime bird

(See complete list of birds related to Lewis & Clark Expedition in the Appendix below.)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

[1] https://lewis-clark.org/sciences/birds/

[2] Holmgren, Virginia C., Birdwatcher’s Guide to Lewis and Clark

[3] My sister, Mary Hooper Klaff, sent me a note and voice recording in April, 2025 where she asked: “Henry: What do you make of this bird call? I was outside at 12:30am, when it’s always pretty quiet, and there were nonstop bird calls. It’s coming from the same location, although there is another series down the street. It cannot be real birds doing this. Changing series of bird calls nonstop. This is a sample of the call, as I recorded it.”

When I heard the call that she had recorded on her phone, I thought it was either a catbird or a mockingbird. I finally landed on the Northern Mockingbird. Here are my four reasons for this bird: First, there are no known Nightengales native to North America (and, coincidentally, the Mockingbird has been called “America’s nightengale”). Second, the Mockingbird is found nesting and prevalent well within the site of Nightingale Creek (near Jefferson City, Missouri). Third, the time of year (June 4) is consistent with the mating months of many birds, including the Mockingbird (April to July). And lastly, the Northern Mockingbird is a virtuoso nocturnal singer and could easily have been the songster in question. They are known for their beautiful singing voice and tendancy to make plaintive calls all night long during mating season. Therefore, my gambling bucks would go to this beautiful “mimic of a bird caller” with more melodious notes in its repertoire than almost any other species.

One final thought: it could just as easily have been a seasonal serenade by the never previously identified American Nightengale. Time to go searching for that elusive bird.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Appendix:

NOTE: Below is a “List of Birds Sighted by Lewis & Clark and Corp of Discovery (1804-1806).” The order of the list does not necessarily follow known patterns of bird identification. It is from lists that were first curated by Virginia C. Holmgren. Her list includes the locations and the dates of the sightings and is a treasure trove to the Expeditions in many ways that are beyond the scope of this Post.

I have linked the common bird names to known websites and I have scribed the scientific names for further species discovery. There are many species which have changed names and others that have been identified differently in today’s taxonomy. The Passenger Pigeon is extinct and there are approximately 70 Whooping Cranes left in the U.S. Whenever possible, I have changed to more current labelling. The main links are to Cornell Labs Site – All About Birds.