The making of American Bison as the official national animal had me revisiting Nick Lund’s post on what each state bird should be. Subsequently seeing one of those infographics about the most unique search terms in every state made the light bulb go off in my head. What are the most uniquely seen birds in each state?
|District of Columbia||Fish Crow||5.00|
|Minnesota||Great Gray Owl||13.56|
|New Hampshire||Bicknell’s Thrush||25.24|
|New Mexico||Chihuahuan Raven||31.22|
|New York||Great Black-backed Gull||3.41|
|North Carolina||Audubon’s Shearwater||24.83|
|North Dakota||Baird’s Sparrow||26.94|
|Rhode Island||Great Cormorant||17.32|
|South Carolina||Wood Stork||11.13|
|South Dakota||Sharp-tailed Grouse||12.49|
|West Virginia||Cerulean Warbler||7.94|
Some of these are pretty intuitive, but others not so much. It would be pretty easy to guess that Maine’s bird seen at the greatest rate compared to the national average is Atlantic Puffin. But what about Acadian Flycatchers in Maryland?
It’s also interesting to note that Utah is the only state in which its most unique bid is also its official state bird. But, it’s a bird named after a different state. You can do better, Utah.