Anything but the mockingbird: It’s time to change the Florida state bird | Opinion

Hey Florida, can we talk about our state bird? Does it really have to be the northern mockingbird? Or could we make it literally any other bird?

Nothing against the northern mockingbird. Its scientific name, Mimus polyglottos, means “many-tongued mimic,” spotlighting its superpower of reproducing hundreds of bird calls with uncanny accuracy. That’s amazing! But for Florida? Imitating other places is not exactly our brand.

What bird do you think best represents Florida? There’s the osprey, the reddish egret, the brown pelican, the snowy egret, the great egret, the great blue and great white herons… We are spoiled for choice!

Florida scrub jays exist only in Florida; if we lose them, they will be lost worldwide. These sky-blue birds live in open white-sand habitat once abundant in the state, and they have made a home in our orange orchards. Scrub jays deserve our appreciation and protection — and we’re thrilled they’re proposed as our state songbird. But the state bird has a different job.

Do you have a bird you’d rather see as state bird than the mockingbird or the flamingo? We get it. We’re those people, too.

If anyone had reason to push a candidate other than flamingos, it would be me (Jerry). I’ve spent three decades slogging through mangroves to help roseate spoonbills recover from near-collapse. Spoonbills are unforgettable: cotton-candy pink in flight, with green, dinosaur-like heads up close and those bizarre, sensitive spoon-shaped bills. Watching one sweep the water, snapping up prey in a fraction of a second, is pure Florida magic.

And I (Hilary) spent years writing the book on another contender: the Everglade snail kite. This raptor exists only in Florida and Cuba. It evolved a delicately curved bill perfectly suited for extracting native apple snails. When those snails declined and invasive snails appeared, snail kites adapted — quickly. Their resilience, ingenuity and deep roots here make them powerful symbols of the Florida I love.

So when we say this next part, understand what it costs us.

The flamingo should be Florida’s state bird.

It makes the most sense — and yes, the most cents. The flamingo is already synonymous with Florida worldwide. Few people realize they’re native because, by 1900, they were nearly wiped out by the plume trade. But prior to that, they were found on every coastline from the Panhandle to the Keys. By officially embracing flamingos, we strengthen public will to restore them to our beaches and wetlands, where they have already begun a tentative return. That’s a win for conservation, for quality of life and for tourism.

The fact is that the flamingo is the most electable option for finally replacing the mockingbird. History offers a parallel: Bald eagles long served as our nation’s symbol before becoming our national bird in 2024, supplanting wild turkeys. Official recognition often lags far behind the choice made in the public imagination. On a recent tour of Christmas displays in historic Key West, we saw no fewer than six brightly lit flamingos gracing people’s lawns but, unsurprisingly, not a single mockingbird.

Audubon Florida takes no position on state bird, encouraging Floridians instead to channel their passion into meaningfully protecting the birds they love. After all, swallow-tailed kites, crested caracaras, sandhill cranes and many others urgently need habitat protection and Everglades restoration. We wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. But it still leaves us with what we think is a lackluster state bird.

The moment is here. Legislation introduced by Rep. Jim Mooney (HB 11) and Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez (SB 150) would make the flamingo Florida’s state bird and the Florida scrub jay our state songbird.

So Florida, what do you think? Does the mockingbird represent Florida’s unique birdlife? Or are we ready to stop imitating, and choose a bird that is already Florida’s face to the world?

Join us. Cherish and protect your favorite bird. Embrace the flamingo as Florida’s state bird.

Hilary Flower is an Everglades researcher, an Eckerd College professor and the author of books including The Kite and the Snail: An Endangered Bird, Its Unlikely Prey. Jerry Lorenz has participated in Everglades restoration efforts for more than 35 years through his studies of wading birds. He is retired but holds a research associate position at Florida International University.