Hi Tweets:

As a very novice though interested birder, I don't remember crows in Tacoma
until perhaps the 1970s or so. If my memory serves me correctly there was a
25 cent bounty on crows in Washington State up until that time. I worked on
wheat farms in the Coulee City - Almira neighborhood in the late 40s and
early 50s and don't remember seeing them there either but that could be due
to habitat or lack thereof. So if the American Goldfinch was named the
state bird in 1951 it may have been that crows were rarely seen.

Jim Brewster
brewshome at comcast.net

-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Kevin
Purcell
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2011 2:22 PM
To: Tweeters
Cc: Kevin Purcell
Subject: [Tweeters] American Crow as WA State bird

On Feb 7, 2011, at 9:01 PM, Michael Brown wrote:

> The problem with swifts is, I believe, that the average citizen wouldn't
know the difference between a swift and a swallow. For a state bird, I think
John Q. Public needs to be able to identify with it, or maybe just be able
identify the species. :-)

Perhaps the American Crow should be a candidate?

Perhaps 95% of the population live alongside it.

It's a synanthrope, a lawn-o-phile and a generalist. Maybe this choice would
say more about the direction on life on this planet (and in WA state) than
anything else.

We even have a leading researcher at a state university who works (well,
worked) on crows.

I'm not sure what's behind the current change but I do note that the
previous change from Western Meadowlark (a good choice in both wet and dry
WA) to American Goldfinch in 1951 seems to map the change from rural to
urban. Maybe this is just a 50 year itch.

Or the house reps keeping some local schoolkids entertained.