Hello everyone and welcome to the United States of Birds!
We are going to be learning all the state birds in the United States,
and possibly something about ourselves.
We're going to start out in Maine with the Black-Capped
Chickadee. Let's zoom in so you can see that.
And right next door is the Purple Finch.
Next door to that is that is the Hermit Thrush.
And then southwards to Massachusetts, again with the Black-capped Chickadee.
Now it's worth mentioning that in Maine the state bird is not actually defined in law
as the Black-capped Chickadee. It is defined as "Chickadee", not any particular type of Chickadee.
There are two types that live in Maine. The Boreal Chickadee is found in Maine,
but only in a few certain regions in Maine,
where the Black-capped Chickadee is the one that people are more common with.
There was a State Legislator that tried to define it, legally, as Black-capped Chickadee or Boreal
Chickadee. He just wanted people to choose. But that never went anywhere, so the the state
bird is still legally the Chickadee and unofficially the Black-capped Chickadee.
Let's zoom in even further so we can see the smallest state in the Union. That's Rhode Island,
with the Rhode Island Red, a breed of chicken. Now chickens aren't native to North America.
They're native to Asia, a domesticated version of the Red Jungle Fowl. But they have such a
long history of living with humans that they are still economically and culturally important,
so Rhode Island went with the chicken- the Rhode Island Red.
Next door the American Robin in Connecticut. Not
the only state to have an American Robin as its bird, as we will see.
And in New York, the Eastern Bluebird.
We'll zoom back out so you can see the other states. We go on to New Jersey,
with the American Goldfinch.
And Pennsylvania with the Ruffed Grouse.
Zoom back in so we can see the small states in the Northeast. There's Delaware with the
Delaware Blue Hen. This is another breed of chicken, and it is not blue. Blue seems to
refer to a grey type of feather that might kind of look bluish. There are modern breeds
of chicken that actually do have blue feathers. But the Delaware Blue Hen traditionally does not.
On to Maryland [MD]. An oddly-shaped state, but we did manage to get a Baltimore Oriole in there.
Baltimore Oriole is not named after the city of Baltimore. Instead it is named after the family
of Baltimore, which had a crest of orange and black. And the city is also named after them.
So the Baltimore Oriole and the city of Baltimore have the same
name origin. But they were not named after each other.
Then we move on to a very interesting aspect of state birds, which is the
Band of Cardinals. Virginia - Northern Cardinal. West Virginia - Northern Cardinal
also. North Carolina - Northern Cardinal. Ohio - Northern Cardinal.
Kentucky - Northern Cardinal. And we're not done yet. Indiana - Northern Cardinal.
Illinois - Northern Cardinal. This is what I call the Band of Cardinals. And clearly there are a lot
of Northern Cardinals in this area, because lots of states chose it as their state bird.
It is kind of interesting how people choose the state birds.
So some of these state birds were chosen by legislature. Some were chosen by school children.
But each state kind of had this thing where the other states were choosing their state birds,
they're like, "We need to choose one too, let's have a contest." So because
Cardinals are so recognizable and so popular as birds, among birds or among people in general,
sometimes they just ended up with a lot of the more colorful birds as the state bird.
Back to some unique birds with the Carolina Wren in South Carolina. Seems appropriate.
And Georgia has the Brown Thrasher.
And Alabama has the Northern Flicker, a.k.a. the Yellowhammer.
Then we start another band. A rival band. The Mockingbird Band. In Florida
the Northern Mockingbird. In Mississippi the Northern Mockingbird. In Tennessee the
Northern Mockingbird. In Arkansas the Northern Mockingbird. In Texas
the Northern Mockingbird. Clearly there are more Northern Mockingbirds in the southern states.
It does seem like they had some pressure to form a rival group to push back the Northern Cardinals.
In Louisiana, the Brown Pelican. You'll notice I
tried to choose bird poses that match the shape of the state.
And the Brown Pelican just fits so amazingly into the state of Louisiana. It's really cool.
Let's go up north with the American Robin in Michigan. And also in Wisconsin. And you'll
recall, also in Connecticut. So there's three states there that chose the American Robin.
But again, it seems like they had to band together to hold back the Cardinals.
Missouri has the Eastern Bluebird, which is the same type that's in New York.
Oklahoma has the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.
Then Iowa has the American Goldfinch, same as in New Jersey.
Oh, and Washington also has the American Goldfinch.
Minnesota has the Common Loon. Again, look how well the Loon fits into the state of Minnesota.
Next is an interesting one. South Dakota went with the Ring-Necked Pheasant. The
bird itself is native to Asia, but it was imported into the United States. And it
has established itself, so you can find Ring-necked Pheasants in North America.
But with all the options that they had for native birds, they chose the Ring-necked Pheasant.
Next we have Kansas with the Western Meadowlark. And oh, look, Nebraska also has the Western
Meadowlark. And North Dakota also has the Western Meadowlark. And Wyoming. And Montana. And Oregon.
Clearly there are some Western Meadowlarks out here. I think this bird has an amazing song.
[birdsong] And it's got that really distinctive plumage so that people recognize it and they
hear it by sound or they see it by sight. And so it ended up being a very popular bird as well.
Idaho has the Mountain Bluebird. Not to be confused with the Eastern Bluebirds
that you can see in New York and Missouri.
Nevada also went with Mountain Bluebird.
Colorado went with the Lark Bunting. this is a female Lark Bunting. The males have
distinctive black feathers and a white band on their wings.
New Mexico has the Greater Roadrunner.
Utah has an interesting one for a landlocked state. They chose the California Gull. So
historically there was a story where a bunch of crickets came down from the mountains and they
were eating the crops. And then some California Gulls appeared and started eating the crickets,
thereby saving the crops. So culturally they have significance as a really helpful
bird that saved their crops. And you can see a monument to seagulls eating crickets in Utah.
Arizona went with the Cactus Wren. Seems appropriate.
And California went with the California Quail.
So that finishes off the continental United States. But we still have a couple more to go.
In Hawaii, let's zoom in really close and we can see the Nēnē.
It was really hard to fit it on there, but it's an endemic Hawaiian goose.
And let's go over to Alaska for the final state bird, the Willow Ptarmigan.
So there it is! The United States of birds. The selection process for these state birds, pretty
much all of them happened in a different way. They happened in different years, they happened
under different circumstances. But it's really interesting how people identify with certain
symbols. So I think the United States of birds not only tells us interesting stories and facts about
the birds that are the state birds, but I think it also tells us interesting stories about ourselves.
I'm considering turning this into a poster or something, so if you would be interested
in buying a poster of the United States of birds, please let me know in the comments.
If this does ever turn into something you might be able to buy, I'll put a link in the description.
I'm going to do at least one more video in this series of bird symbols,
so you can subscribe to know when that video comes
out. Thanks for stopping by the week to learn what makes Life awesome!