The cardinal is Ohio’s state bird too, and I like it. We are not overrun with cardinals, but I see them often enough, at least several a week. They are very pretty, especially in the winter when the red is a relief from all that snow. Plus, it’s a nice counterpart to our State Flower, the scarlet carnation, which has a nice story behind it (that could be another thread!)
While I’m not from Minnesota, I’d just like to point out that their state bird is the common loon.
So *that’s *why they keep electing Michele Bachmann.
I have a friend from Minnesota who claims that the state bird is the mosquito.
I look at the California Quail and think . . . just how happy am I supposed to be about a state bird? It doesn’t embarass me and I think that’s about as much as I can expect.
West Virginia is another cardinal state, and I guess it’s OK as the state bird - there are plenty of them here and it’s a pretty bird - but I wish we had something more original. Nobody has the blue jay, we should have gone for that one.
It’s kind of odd that we have a license plate with the rose-breasted grosbeak on it. I guess someone decided it was prettier than our state bird, and Virginia already has a license plate with a cardinal.
Minnesota is the Common Loon.
Very fitting after getting to know a lot of the locals since I moved here.
Another Floridian checking in. I’m okay with the mocking bird; as mentioned they do make a lovely sound and there certainly are a lot of them. Seems the common loon would be a more appropriate chocie though. Lot’s of looniness in Florida (not to mention common).
Another mockingbird state here (Texas), and I’m not happy with it. They can be annoying and are kinda plain.
Some alternates I’d like to see considered: The Whooping Crane, the Rio Grande Wild Turkey, the blue jay, the cattle egret.
I’m in Maine and our state bird is the black-capped chickadee. I an neither happy nor unhappy with that, for I wouldn’t care if our state bird was the purple-dicked baby-snatcher.
In the eighteen years I’ve lived in New Hamsphire, I’ve seen a purple finch once. And while I see black-capped chickadees here all the time, those are not the kind I ever saw in Massachusetts, just boreal. So no, I don’t think state birds are well-chosen.
I’m ok with the quail but I think it would have been cooler if California had chosen to go with the condor. At least until they go extinct but then we’d get to change our state bird occasionally.
My state bird is a matter of passionate indifference to me. IIRC, the bluebird is hard to find in New York.
Nothing against the Eastern Bluebird, but it’s a little boring. The New York State bird should be the pigeon. Other than the swallows of Capistrano, is there a stronger association between a city and a bird (at least in the U.S.) than New York City and pigeons? Pigeons are ugly and dirty, sure, but they have character.
I think it’s great that a mere single bird was not enough for several states. I counted five with two state birds, and that’s not counting South Carolina, which apparently ditched the Northern Mockingbird for the Carolina Wren, perhaps because they wanted to remind everybody that they’re one of only two Carolinas, and that they’re not too keen on Yankee birds. 
Don’t knock the loon! The best part is they’re all over the frickin’ place. I’m from California, and yes, the quail is stupid, but more importantly, has anyone ever seen a quail? Where do they all hang out?
Yeah - I like the Brown Thrasher as our state bird. I see them frequently enough in my back yard, thrashing around under the shrubbery for food. And no other state has appropriated it as its bird. (Jeez, enough with the Northern Cardinals!)
Ruffed Grouse for the win! Unique among state birds (no other state has it) and tell me this isn’t badass…
Florida’s is apparently the Northern Mockingbird, which doesn’t make much sense to me. Where the hell are the Southern Mockingbirds? Argentina?
Delaware Blue Hen Chicken… Famously aggressive fighting gamecocks, associated with a regiment of equally aggressive Revolutionary War soldiers.
Yeah, I can live with that.
Another Ohioan here. I don’t mind the cardinal, either - it’s one of the more colorful birds around here, after all, and they look good against the winter snow. I just wish we didn’t have to share it with so many other states. Hmmm. Bald eagles have made an amazing comeback in the state in recent years, and it might be kind of cool to share a state bird with the nation itself. I see peregrine falcons from time to time around here, too, and they’re awesome birds.
Ohio has a ridiculous number of “official state” this and that, including fossil (trilobite), drink (tomato juice, ick), and insect (ladybug).
What’s up with states that have two state birds? What sort of pervy, communistic, state birding needs can a state have where one bird alone can’t satisfy them?
I’m in OH. I like Cardinals and see them all the time but our state bird really ought to be the Turkey Vulture or the Hinckley Buzzard as he’s known locally.
And official state rock song (Hang On Sloopy)! And official gemstone (flint!) State mammal (white-tailed deer!) Official prehistoric monument (Newark Earthworks – take* that*, Serpent Mound!) State reptile, state wildflower. There was some back-and-forth bitching about a state fish for a while but I don’t think they ever settled on one.