As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Thursday 8 June 2017

Vancouver elects Anna’s hummingbird as official city bird

May 18, 2017
 

Reimer: Bird campaign ‘awakens in us this concept of re-wilding’
Megan Stewart — Vancouver Courier

Anna’s hummingbird is the official bird of Vancouver after the sprightly winged creature won nearly half the vote following a three-week campaign.

Taking 3,450 ballots, Anna’s hummingbird won 42 per cent of polls, beating the Northern flicker with 32 per cent, the varied thrush with 15 per cent, and finally the spotted towhee with 11 per cent support.

Anna’s hummingbird is a legacy of the Vancouver Bird Strategy, first launched in 2015 to draw attention to the conditions and habitats native birds need to thrive in an urbanized environment.

The Anna’s hummingbird becomes the city’s official and permanent winged mascot, a fixture that will allow artists and organizations to adopt it as long-term branding since it won’t change within a year’s time.

Although the bird popularity contest of 2017 was a tongue-in-cheek campaign, the mission of the city’s bird strategy is more serious, said city councillor Andrea Reimer.

“All birds are indicators of ecological health,” she said, elaborating on the metaphor of putting a canary in a coal mine. “You could put the name of any bird in that sentence and you would have an appropriate indication for the health of an ecosystem.” - 

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