Could the Canada jay unite the nation?
Group hopes Canada jay will garner interest from the federal government
Birders and ornithologists across Canada are hoping that a name change will help revive a campaign to make a cheeky songbird the country’s national bird.
What was once known as the gray jay is now the Canada jay. Earlier this month the change was announced by the American Ornithological Association (AOA), the U.S.-based group dedicated to the scientific study and conservation of birds.
In fact, the decision corrects what many consider a historical mistake. Canada jay is a restoration of the English name the bird held from 1831 to 1957.
The new name for the songbird is exactly what David Bird, a retired McGill University wildlife professor, thinks will help convince the federal government to officially adopt the Canada jay as the country’s national bird.
Bird speaks on behalf of Team Canada Jay, a loose group of about 50 birders, ornithologists and supporters. One of its prominent members is artist Robert Bateman.
Last year, the drive to single out the gray jay ran out of steam when the federal government said it wasn’t interested.
The campaign had been started by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, which ran a National Bird Project and an online contest. Finishing first and second in voting were the common loon and snowy owl. But the society chose the third-place gray jay for a very good reason, Bird said. The loon is already Ontario’s provincial bird and the snowy owl is Quebec’s.
“Can you imagine the furor that would have been caused if the federal government elevated the Ontario bird or Quebec bird to national status? There would have been all sorts of cries of foul,” said Bird, a raptor specialist at McGill in Montreal who has retired to Sidney.
“That’s why the team believes that we should go with something fresh and new — the same way we did in 1965 when we chose the flag.”
Can you imagine the furor that would been caused if the federal government elevated the Ontario bird or Quebec bird?
Bird believes 2018 is a perfect year for the federal government to single out a national bird from the country’s 450 species of birds. Internationally, it’s the Year of the Bird to commemorate the centennial of the Migratory Bird Treaty, which has been called the most important international bird-conservation measure ever enacted. The treaty protects migratory birds between the United States and Britain which, in 1918, was acting for Canada.
This August, thousands of ornithologists and bird lovers will be in Vancouver for the 27th International Ornithological Congress and the city’s first Vancouver International Bird Festival.
“There will be a Canada Night at the congress,” Bird said by phone on his way to Toronto. “The federal government has been invited, but hasn’t said whether they’ll be there.”
Canadian Heritage said in an email that “at this time the Government of Canada isn’t actively considering proposals to adopt a bird as a national symbol.”
Many other countries have designated a national bird. In the United States, it’s the bald eagle; the U.K., the European robin; Sweden, the common blackbird; Norway, the white-throated dipper; and Japan, the green pheasant. The Canada jay is also known as the whisky jack, which comes from the Cree word Wisakedjak. It’s known as a camp robber because of the bird’s tendency to lose its fear of humans and steal food from campsites.
The other knock against making the gray jay the national bird last year was that it used the American spelling of gray, with an ‘a’ instead of an ‘e.’
The restoration of the name Canada jay was spearheaded by Dan Strickland, former chief park naturalist at Algonquin Provincial Park in southeastern Ontario. He researched archives in Washington, D.C., to discover there was no sound ornithological reason for changing the name of the Canada jay in 1957.
“If it hadn’t been for that contest and the push to choose a national bird, I never would have bothered about why did (the AOA) change it in 1957,” he said by phone from Comox on Vancouver Island, where he is studying Canada jays in Strathcona Provincial Park.
“I would be delighted if the Canada jay was adopted as the national bird.”