[obol] state bird WAS Varied Thrush

[Cindy Ashy]

Fellow OBOLonians:

With all the posts about state birds, I got curious today and googled state
birds and quickly found this nice list with good links:

http://www.50states.com/bird/

A few things jumped out at me:

1. No raptors
2. No big beautiful wading birds like herons or egrets
3. No ducks and in fact only one waterfowl: the Common Loon for Minnesota
(well, even though the Hawaiian Nene is mostly terrestrial it could be
considered a "waterfowl" being evolutionarily descended from the Canadian
Goose)

Judging from book covers for bird guides, symbols for various bird
organizations, etc, it seems the above 3 categories, especially the first 2,
are among the most popular of all the birds and it amazes me that they haven't
been selected for state birds.

4. Mostly passerines: 38 passerines/12 non-passerines