> Y'know (another overused phrase, which I figure may as well be a contraction because that's how everyone pronounces it anyway), I wonder how many people who said they didn't live in the U.S. and didn't have an official bird actually have one, but it was just so insignificant a fact of their lives that they didn't know it.

The kiwi is a pretty significant symbol in New Zealand. I doubt there'd be anybody here who didn't know it was our official bird. It's perhaps not the world's most inspiring national symbol, but unfortunately the five-foot-tall giant penguin and that prehistoric eagle that could carry off a person were extinct by the time national birds came into fashion. ;-)

> We have a state bird that doesn't even have a characteristic call; it just mimics other birds. How silly is that?

Perhaps it should be the official bird of elected officials?

>FL representative Howard Futch thought it was pretty silly,too, so in an even sillier move, he was campaigning quite vigorously for the state bird to be changed to the scrub jay, but the bill was defeated. Mockingbird it stays. ::shrug:: I'm serious; see the link below.

I believe it was Ben Franklin who campaigned for the turkey to become the US national bird rather than the bald eagle. What a man. I'd love to have met him.

Brunnen-"of *course* I'm being serious about the penguin"G