US State Birds Quiz — 7 Free Questions

Question 1

This state's official bird descended from a Canada goose ancestor that arrived on the islands long ago and has since evolved reduced webbing on its feet, suited to walking on volcanic rock. What is the official state bird of Hawaii?

Question 2

This state's official bird is one of the most recognizable backyard birds in the eastern half of the country, with males displaying brilliant all-over red plumage and a prominent crest. What is the official state bird of Illinois?

Question 3

This state's official bird is a type of woodpecker with a golden-yellow flash under its wings and tail, visible clearly in flight, and it lent its name to a nickname for the entire state itself. What is the official state bird of Alabama?

Question 4

This state's official bird is known for its rich, flute-like song delivered from fence posts across open grassland, despite belonging to the blackbird family rather than true larks. What is the official state bird of Kansas?

Question 5

This state's official bird has a bright yellow breast marked with a distinctive black V-shaped band. What is the official state bird of Montana?

Question 6

This state's official bird is known to sing even during the night under bright moonlight or artificial lighting, particularly unmated males in springtime. What is the official state bird of Tennessee?

Question 7

This state's official bird is often described as looking like a sparrow that was dipped in raspberry juice, referencing the deep wine-red wash across the male's head and back. What is the official state bird of New Hampshire?

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About US State Birds

Like state flowers, most state birds were formally adopted in the early-to-mid 1900s, often after local schoolchildren, garden clubs, or women's civic organizations campaigned for a favorite species and pushed their state legislature to make it official. What's genuinely surprising is how much overlap resulted from all that independent campaigning happening around the same era.

The Northern Cardinal, with its bright red plumage and cheerful whistling song, ended up being chosen by more states than any other bird in the country, officially adopted by Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia, seven states in total. The Western Meadowlark comes in as a close second in popularity, claimed by six different states across the American West and Plains.

The Northern Mockingbird tells an interesting story of its own. It was picked by several southern states in the early twentieth century largely for its remarkable ability to imitate the songs of dozens of other bird species. Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee all still list it as their official state bird today, though South Carolina, which originally chose the mockingbird too, switched to the Carolina Wren in 1948 specifically so its state symbol would feel more distinct from its neighbors.

Some states chose birds tied specifically and unmistakably to their own geography instead of a popular favorite. Louisiana's Brown Pelican nearly went extinct within the state during the mid-twentieth century due to the pesticide DDT thinning its eggshells, and only returned in significant numbers after a decades-long conservation effort and the eventual DDT ban, making its recovery a genuine point of state pride. Hawaii's state bird, the Nene, a native goose found nowhere else on Earth, was down to just a few dozen birds in the wild by the 1950s before an intensive breeding and reintroduction program brought the species back from the edge of extinction.

Alaska's choice, the Willow Ptarmigan, is a bird that turns almost entirely white in winter for camouflage against the snow, while Minnesota picked the Common Loon, known for its distinctive, haunting call that echoes across the state's thousands of lakes. Maryland took a slightly different, more playful route, choosing the Baltimore Oriole, a bird whose black-and-orange coloring later inspired the name of the city's Major League Baseball team rather than the other way around.

Taken together, official state birds end up reflecting a genuine mix of shared regional favorites and deeply local pride, which is exactly what makes matching each bird back to its correct state a more interesting challenge than pure memorization alone.

A handful of states picked birds for reasons closer to whimsy than deep symbolism too. Utah's California Gull earned its spot after a famous 1848 incident in which large flocks of the gulls reportedly saved early Mormon settlers' crops by devouring a swarm of crickets threatening to destroy their harvest, an event now commemorated with a monument in Salt Lake City. Delaware's Blue Hen Chicken nickname and state bird both trace back to a fighting cockerel breed that soldiers from Delaware supposedly carried with them during the Revolutionary War, and the nickname stuck to the state itself long after.