Florida may change state birds

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For 72 years, Florida's state bird has been the feisty mockingbird, a gray-feathered mimic that is as likely to show up in a suburban back yard or a downtown park as in a forest or a swamp.

But the mockingbird is also the state bird of Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. So the Florida state wildlife commission asked schoolchildren to pick a new state bird. More than 20,000 voted for the osprey, a raptor sometimes called the fish hawk.

The osprey "represents the thousands of miles of river ways, lake shores and coastlines that make Florida distinctive in the United States and where this regal bird makes its home," the staff of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission wrote in a memo last month.

However, past attempts at persuading the legislature to change the state bird have failed. They were shot down by one very powerful, very determined lobbyist: Marion Hammer of the National Rifle Association. And as far as she's concerned, this osprey idea just won't fly.

"I remain unequivocally opposed to changing the state bird," Hammer said last week. She likes the fact that they're ubiquitous.

"They can be seen on any given day in any area of the state by children and adults alike," Hammer explained. "No other bird I can think of is as common."

She also likes the fact that mockingbirds are willing to fight other birds, even larger ones, that might threaten their nests.

"They are very protective of their family and of their territory," she said.

She finds their ability to mimic other bird songs and even various sounds highly entertaining. On her home territory, at the state Capitol Building, she has noticed mockingbirds mimicking the sound of ringing cell phones.

They're so convincing "you will see lobbyists and other people reaching for their cell phones," she said, chuckling.

By comparison, the osprey's shriek of "kee-uk!" seems tongue-tied. Worse, the osprey is common primarily in coastal areas, not in the state's interior. To Hammer, Florida's state bird should be easy to spot anywhere in the state.

In 1999, more than 10,000 schoolchildren signed a petition to change the state bird to something far rarer than the mockingbird: the Florida scrub jay. Supporters of the scrub jay boasted about how gentle it is, how it will eat peanuts right out of a person's hand.

Hammer was unmoved.

"Begging for food isn't sweet," she testified in a committee hearing. "It's lazy and it's a welfare mentality."

Her opposition doomed the effort to switch to the scrub jay in 1999, and again in 2000.

The pro-osprey movement started as a civics lesson for kids in the fourth through the eighth grades, who could choose among the osprey, the great egret, the black skimmer, the snowy egret or the brown pelican.

Last Nov. 4, on the same day the adults were picking a new president, 78,000 children cast ballots for a new state bird. The osprey won with 28,229 votes, according to Judy Gillian of the wildlife commission.

Now the staff is asking wildlife commissioners to vote this week to make the bird switch a priority for the 2010 legislature.

MOCKINGBIRD (Mimus polyglottus)

Color: Gray with white wing bars and outer tail feathers

Size: length 9-11 inches, wingspan 13-15 inches

Diet: Insects, berries, fruits

Habitat: City parks, suburban back yards, orange groves, forests

Skill: Able to imitate other birds and even man-made sounds

OSPREY (Pandion haliaetus)

Color: Brown with white crown and dark line through eye

Size: length 20-24 inches, wingspan 5 to 6 feet

Diet: Fish

Habitat: Coastal areas and inland lakes

Skill: Plunges into water feet-first to catch fish in its talons

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service www.scrippsnews.com)

Must credit St. Petersburg Times.