Why Canada Should Have a National Bird

        Birding (AKA birdwatching) continues to be one of the fastest growing hobbies in North America.   One in five Canadians spends an average of at least 133 days a year watching, monitoring, feeding, filming, or photographing the 450 or so different kinds of birds in our country.   It almost doubles the 70 days a year Canadians spend gardening.   More than a quarter of our households have installed feeders and bird houses in our backyards and almost ten percent of us have bought bird identification books and binoculars and taken trips specifically to see birds and attend hundreds of bird festivals all over North America.  That is big bucks for our economy!   

         But it’s not just about the money!    Birds do a lot for humans.   They eat pests, pollinate our plants and crops, disperse seeds; their eggs and meat (yes, chickens are birds!) feed us and their feathers keep us warm.   They have even helped us win wars by teaching our military about flight, camouflage, sentry systems, and acting as vital message carriers.  Birds have saved human lives not just by serving as literal ‘canaries in coal mines’ but also by globally warning us of other environmental health hazards such as carcinogenic pesticides and industrial by-products.  

         However, we also celebrate birds because of their intrinsic value.   Who can deny that birds entertain us in so many ways with their beauty, their song and their flight?  How many great writers, artists, film-makers, and even aviators and astronauts were inspired by these amazing unique creatures?!    In short, a world without birds will not just be a biologically diminished world but also an emotionally diminished one.  And if we lose our birds, we will lose ourselves.

         Wikipedia’s List of National Birds indicates that 106 of the world’s 195 countries have official birds.  But Canada is not listed --  we do not have one!   Yet our country does have national symbols – the beaver, the maple tree, and two sports.  We’ve even got a national horse!   But alas --- no official bird. 

         The world is full of symbols, whether it be sports uniforms, company logos or even traffic signs.  But an official bird would not only represent all of those wonderful things that birds do for us, but also symbolize the very nature of Canadians as being the friendly, hardy, and intelligent people that many folks in the world have come to see us.  

----   David M. Bird, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Wildlife Biology, McGill University