Ottawa Citizen

No national bird nod for grey jay — yet

- TOM SPEARS

The grey jay won’t be our national bird after all. No bird will be. We’re not going to have one, at least not yet.

The Royal Canadian Geographic­al Society ran a two-year National Bird Project, inviting the public to vote for their favourites.

The winner: The grey jay, a clever and sometimes friendly inhabitant of all provinces and territorie­s.

The Society and its magazine, Canadian Geographic, had no official role in choosing a national symbol but they hoped the federal government would go along with the results, and hatch a national bird for Canada’s 150th.

Now, however, the official word is in from Canadian Heritage:

“At this time, the Government of Canada is not actively considerin­g proposals to adopt a bird as a national symbol.”

Boom. The national bird won’t fly. Or will it?

Supporters vowed Tuesday to fight on for the jay, also known as the whiskey jack.

“We are not giving up,” McGill University ornitholog­ist David Bird wrote in an email. “We plan to continue beseeching the government to undertake this act in any we can.”

Right now there is a petition on change.org circulatin­g to get Canadians to sign and adopt the Canada Jay (not the Gray Jay) as our national bird.

“I am trying to get an audience with (Heritage Minister) Mélanie Joly in her riding office to appeal to her directly. We are also seeking First Nations support, as this bird figures strongly in their culture.”

The nationwide campaign and online voting were front-page news all over the country, and nearly 50,000 people voted.

Voters actually picked the loon and the snowy owl ahead of the grey jay, but a panel of experts made the final choice.

Amateurs and scientists alike warmed to the idea.

Here’s artist Robert Bateman, recalling in a blog post how he met the jay in his teens: “So on a hunch I took a little piece of sandwich and held it out. Then I was treated to the thrill of the trusting bird landing on my fingers. Friendly but wild. Could that be Canadians at their best?”

McGill’s David Bird also likes the grey jay for all kinds of reasons: It stays here all winter, figures prominentl­y in Aboriginal folklore, and isn’t hunted or endangered. It rarely lives in the United States. It’s really, really smart.

(By the way, he argues it is better known as the Canada jay. Gray jay is an American term.)

Others point out that the little jay has at least two distinct subspecies — some naturalist­s say three. Two solitudes! Multicultu­ralism! It was perfect.

And a funny thing happened. Along the way, huge numbers of people got excited by the campaign.

“I couldn’t believe all the people who have talked to me about Canada’s new national bird,” says Ottawa naturalist Dan Brunton. “I think that’s a great way to get people interested” in nature.

“Many groups have tried this over the years, to get a national bird,” said Ted Cheskey, the top bird conservati­onist at Nature Canada.

He thinks many people thought the campaign was official, “especially with the fact that the environmen­t minister (Catherine McKenna) was so enthusiast­ic about it, as she is about a lot of things. (They) confused it with a government initiative, but it was an NGO initiative.”

In the meantime, the Master Gardeners of Canada are lobbying to have a national flower of Canada. You can even vote online.

 ?? SANDRA AND FRANK HORVATH ?? Ornitholog­ist David Bird says the grey jay or Canada jay stays here all winter, figures prominentl­y in Aboriginal folklore, and isn’t hunted or endangered and is really, really smart.
SANDRA AND FRANK HORVATH Ornitholog­ist David Bird says the grey jay or Canada jay stays here all winter, figures prominentl­y in Aboriginal folklore, and isn’t hunted or endangered and is really, really smart.

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