I think the reason why the Goldfinch is Washington's state bird, and why Goldfinch, Robin, Cardinal, etc. appear so frequently as state birds is that they were chosen by kids. I believe that state governments went to the schools to get votes from the students on what should be their state bird(s). Therefore, we have our commonest and most conspicuous species elected. Now if the state governments went to the birders instead to determine state birds (my choice), we'd probably have much more interesting and representative species chosen for each state.

Barry Ulman
Bellingham, WA.



n Feb 8, 2011, at 5:43 AM, Pterodroma at aol.com wrote:

> Varied Thrush! I will whole heartedly second that! Great choice and perfect not to mention one of my most favorite North American birds! In addition, one of the reasons (of several) I chose to live here at all in Washington and the Pacific Northwest.
>
> The whole goldfinch thing has always struck me as just plain weird.
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