What US State Birds should be... (1 Viewer)

sirwired · May 20, 2013

http://www.slate.com/articles/healt...inals_and_robins_with_warblers_and_hawks.html

Even though the article is obviously geared towards US residents, it's a delightfully cranky rant on the rather odd and undistinguished choices of "Official State Birds" in the United States.

Jeff Hopkins · May 21, 2013

It's a great article, but I disagree with his conclusion that PA's bird should stay ruffed grouse. It was picked as a paean to hunters. Personally, I'd like red-tailed or broad-winged hawk.

Larry Lade · May 21, 2013

I have often thought it was kind of strange for states to name birds which are only in their respect states for part of the year, such as the Lark Bunting for Colorado, as their State Bird. * I am surprised that you would suggest that several states change their (resident) State Bird to one that is in their state only parts of the year. I do agree that some could do better though than Northern Cardinal or meadowlark!

robinm · May 21, 2013

I feel like an intruder

I have always thought it odd that the state bird of Utah was the California Gull.

Apparently it commemorates the saving of the people of the State when gulls ate crickets which were destroying crops.

snowyowl · May 21, 2013

Great article. I don't agree with A. Flamingo for Florida. Great Egret or Snowy Egret would be more appropriate, I think. I think that NY should use the European Starling as I believe that is where they were introduced and NY should carry that guilt for ever.

Jos Stratford · May 21, 2013

robinm said:
I feel like an intruder

I have always thought it odd that the state bird of Utah was the California Gull.

And, in the state the freeway rules okay, more so than other states I'd say, California's bird should surely be the Roadrunner.

Top comment in the article ...

Massachusetts.

'Screw you, Taxachusetts. Maine wins.'

And agree on the Piping Plover suggestion for this state.

Jos Stratford · May 21, 2013

Cowbird for Wyoming, to go with the cowboys

Peter C. · May 21, 2013

Some of these choices really make sense (Mississippi Kite, Kirtland's Warbler), but a few make me question the writer's awareness, or perhaps, sanity; particularly Connecticut Warbler for Conn. This is a bird that is only rarely seen in that state, and even then, only on its way to/from its breeding grounds in Canada!

I did get a kick out of seeing that the state bird of Alabama was the "Yellowhammer" though! Took me a few seconds to figure that one out...

Peter C.

KC Foggin · May 21, 2013

Looks like my State got it right

chris butterworth · May 21, 2013

robinm said:
I feel like an intruder

Being a gobby Scouser I never feel that soooo.....

Perhaps it's my rather warped sense of humour but, Cardinals as the state birds of Kentucky, N. Carolina, Virginia and W. Virginia? Aren't they all in the 'Bible Belt'?

I have heard there are (unofficial ) county birds for the UK, I dread to think what they would be. :eek!:

Chris

crazyfingers · May 21, 2013

Jos Stratford said:
Cowbird for Wyoming, to go with the cowboys

Hmm. The cowbird is a parasitic bird, lays eggs in other birds nest and then goes off to play the rest of year. A total freeloader. If I was in Wyoming I don't think I'd want that.

crazyfingers · May 21, 2013

On Maine, where we spend three weeks at our old family homestead each year, I have to disagree with the author on the Chickadee. While I have nothing against Chickadees, except that they never seem to sit still long enough for me to get a good photo! I don't see them as distinctive of Maine. When I think of Maine and it's huge lakes and rocky shores, I think of the Northern Loon or the Osprey. And both are fishermen and Maine is known for its fishing industry. I wonder if Loons ever catch small lobsters....

crazyfingers · May 21, 2013

I've always had an issue with he official US bird being the bald eagle. While it's an impressive large and fearsome looking thing, it's also a disreputable thief making a habit of stealing fish from honest Osprey who got his fish by his own work and other dastardly plots.

The US should have a national bird that represents what the US ostensibly wants to emulate. I don't think that the US wants to be a crook though I'm sure that some people would describe it that way... All I have to say about that!

I recall a story that Founding Father Ben Franklin had suggested that the official bird should have been a turkey. I think he had some interesting reasons but I don't recall what they were. He was voted down.

Jos Stratford · May 21, 2013

crazyfingers said:
Hmm. The cowbird is a parasitic bird, lays eggs in other birds nest and then goes off to play the rest of year. A total freeloader. If I was in Wyoming I don't think I'd want that.

Didn't the cowboys do something like this?

Jos Stratford · May 21, 2013

crazyfingers said:
The US should have a national bird that represents what the US ostensibly wants to emulate. I don't think that the US wants to be a crook though I'm sure that some people would describe it that way...

Not sure most people, or at least non-birdy people, associate Bald Eagle with a reputation as a disreputable thief ...more a mighty symbol of free and wild places, king of its realm.

I personally think the Bald Eagle is a good state bird for the US, suppose you could also change it to a Worm-eating Warbler or Dark-eyed Junco 3

crazyfingers · May 21, 2013

Jos Stratford said:
Not sure most people, or at least non-birdy people, associate Bald Eagle with a reputation as a disreputable thief ...more a mighty symbol of free and wild places, king of its realm.

I personally think the Bald Eagle is a good state bird for the US, suppose you could also change it to a Worm-eating Warbler or Dark-eyed Junco 3

Having read the Thornton Burgess http://www.thorntonburgess.org/ animal story books to my kids when they were younger, I'm afraid that my first association with the bald eagle is it stealing a fish from the osprey who had just caught his breakfast the honest way.

Peter C. · May 21, 2013

chris butterworth said:
Perhaps it's my rather warped sense of humour but, Cardinals as the state birds of Kentucky, N. Carolina, Virginia and W. Virginia? Aren't they all in the 'Bible Belt'?

Chris

Yes, the choice of "Cardinal" there is rather ironic; the true "bible thumpers" down there have no truck at all with cardinals, bishops, or indeed anything else that smacks of "Popery". In fact, it seems to me that, back in the 19th-C., they put together a little fraternal society to deal with such perfidious influences, hmmm, the name escapes me ... :h?:

Xenospiza · May 21, 2013

crazyfingers said:
Hmm. The cowbird is a parasitic bird, lays eggs in other birds nest and then goes off to play the rest of year. A total freeloader. If I was in Wyoming I don't think I'd want that.

Washington DC then?

Xenospiza · May 21, 2013

I like his suggestion for Nevada, oddly.
Texas should be Golden-cheeked Warbler, as it can be seen (pretty much) in the state capital. Maybe they would then stop destroying the Hill Country...

chris butterworth · May 21, 2013

crazyfingers said:
The US should have a national bird that represents what the US ostensibly wants to emulate
.

Common, or as it's erroneously called in Nth. America, European Starling?

Chris

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