I would suggest Winter Wren and American dipper as possible additions
to the list of birds representative of the state. Small the wren is,
but what a personality and song! It is also clearly one of the most
abundant of our forest birds and most easily recognized by song. The
dipper rates highly for personality and association with our
well-known mountains and rivers.

The only problem with the suggestions up to now is that eastern
Washington seems to be getting the short end of the stick. Are all
the suggestions coming from westsiders like myself? This brings to
mind the national, and perhaps international, perception of our state
as "the Evergreen State" loaded with dense forests and high
mountains. Most from elsewhere don't realize that about 1/3 of the
state is (or more accurately was) dry steppe and shrubsteppe. The
closest the national perception might approach this is an association
with wheat and apples. How about meadowlark, vesper sparrow or
Brewer's sparrow to even the score?