Mockingbirds are out; scrub jays are in. And there we bird lovers were, out of step with the times, praising mockingbirds in Backyard Bird Racers this past Saturday. We didn’t know that only three days earlier the mockingbird had been trashed publicly by Florida State Representative Mark Pafford and formally proposed in HB 843 to be ousted as the official state bird in favor of the Florida scrub jay. Here is the evidence of our commentary shame for the world to scorn.
Mockingbirds are the handsome bastards of the bird world. (indubitably)
Yes! I see them and magpies as the guys who can look like they are all dressed up formally being elegant and sleek and the next moment they are jokers. (Bésame)
A self-proclaimed “legislative short-timer” from West Palm Beach, Pafford writes in a Tampa BayTimes column that Florida’s State Bird, the mockingbird, is “an obnoxious, plagiarizing and promiscuous bully and has to go.” He suggest the Florida scrub jay as a better representative because “its a handsome blue and slate, is native to — and remains in — our state. The mockingbird — a monotonous gray — is commonplace and all over the map. It comes and goes like the fickle-feathered fiend it is.”
Pafford rants on about those obnoxious mockingbirds.
It's been Florida's state bird, for no good reason, the last 88 years and that's plenty.
We need a state bird that does us proud, sets us apart and serves a greater purpose. The common mockingbird does none of those things. . . .
Four other states also have the mockingbird as their state bird, including Texas, Mississippi and Arkansas (the three states in the union any reasonable person would least like to share something with). The Florida scrub jay would be ours and ours alone.
And he offers more evidence that the “annoying and loud mimic” mockingbird misrepresents Florida values.
- They torment people and newspapers report the attacks. Pafford earnestly asks, “Is this the behavior we want in a state bird? If the Florida scrub jay were the state bird, there would be no headlines about them tormenting [a] family."
- The mockingbird is everywhere. In contrast, the scrub jay is a threatened species, down to perhaps fewer than 10,000 birds.
- Mockingbird chicks are on their own, fending for themselves about 10 days after hatching. The mockingbird parents go on about their lives. Scrub jays, he notes, “have a closely knit community that depends on helping one another.”
Let’s deal with the facts. Florida scrub jay is
- one of only 15 birds endemic to the US;
- the only Florida endemic bird;
- found solely in Florida’s rare oak scrub habitat; and
- one of few cooperative breeding birds in North America.
- The species has state and federal listing as threatened.
- But it’s Florida that threatens the scrub jay’s existence by how the state manages development and the oak scrub vegetation, suppressing wildfires in the remaining habitat not converted to human uses.
- Another threat to the jay’s survival is how friendly the bird is, easily hand-tamed and thus not properly cautious around humans.
- “Each family occupies and defends a home territory. Scrub jays know exactly where their territory ends and their neighbor’s begins. A sentinel scrub jay is always on the look-out and searching for trespassing neighbors . . . . “according to Archbold Biological Station video on jays.
So, does the maligned mockingbird or the scrub jay better represent Florida?
Based on the facts, which bird is more emblematic of Florida? If being the official State Bird automatically brought enhanced conservation efforts, Florida scrub jay would deserve the honor. But honor doesn’t necessarily confer conservation. Florida’s State Animal is the federally endangered Florida panther, which hasn’t had adequate attention from the state to help its population or habitat. State Marine Mammal: manatee. The State Wildflower isn’t even native (tickweed — Coreopsis species). Should scrub jay depose mockingbird from his official perch?
Mockingbird doesn’t stress over status as Florida State Bird. He still holds honors in Texas, Mississippi and Arkansas, and the esteem of Backyard Bird Racers.
Plus, mockingbird has a cool song; scrub jay doesn’t.
Mockingbird rides with the tide and goes with the flow.
Mockingbirds are the handsome bastards of the bird world.