Jane and tweeters:

In 1931 "Willow Goldfinch" was the official name of the subspecies of
American Goldfinch that occurs mostly west of the Cascades and Sierra
Nevada from BC south to Baja California. It was the official name given in
the AOU Check-list of 1931, and in first Peterson Field Guides and in Ralph
Hoffman's wonderful "Birds of the Pacific States." At that time each
SUBSPECIES had its own official common name. The name "American Goldfinch"
hadn't been coined yet. Apparently Willow Goldfinch was the name in use
when the Washington legislature adopted the goldfinch was the official
atate bird.


Richard (Dick) Johnson
Conner Museum and Dept of Zoology
Washington State University
Pullman, WA
johnsonre at wsu.edu





>Wherever did they come up with those names? Washingtonians--what
>exactly is a Willow Goldfinch, apparently your state bird? ;)
>jw
>
>> Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 14:00:33 EDT
>> Reply-to: BrewsPad at aol.com
>> From: BrewsPad at aol.com
>> To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
>> Subject: Re: Trivia Clarification
>
>> Thanks to Roger Craik the complete list for the "Official State Birds" is at:
>>
>> http://www.50states.com/bird/index.html
>>
>> Jim Brewster
>> Kent WA
>> BrewsPad at aol.com
>>
>>
>Jane Westervelt
>Steve Kalloger
>Moscow, ID