Maryland, while not my home state, is where I’ve done most of my birding. It’s also has one of my least favorite state birds. The Baltimore Oriole is allegedly so named because its colors resemble those of the crest of Lord Baltimore, governor of Maryland when it was a colony. While naming the bird for such a reason is less objectionable than naming the Cape May Warbler for a location where it was first collected as a specimen, it doesn’t make sense to make it Maryland’s state bird for that reason alone.
I’ve seen a few Orioles in Maryland, and there’s no doubt that it’s found in habitats throughout the state, but my first criteria is that it be characteristic of the state, and the Oriole falls short there. There’s one defining geological and ecological fact of Maryland, and that is the fact of the Chesapeake Bay. I can’t possibly justify choosing a bird like the Oriole, which, while not excluded from the area around the bay, is not at all characteristic of it.
My first idea for a bird that IS characteristic of the Bay was the Osprey. The Osprey is a great symbol of the Bay for conservationists, representing a spectacular recovery from the depths of the DDT contamination that devastated the populations of so many fish-eating birds. Nowadays, it’s hand to find a large inlet or tributary for the Bay that doesn’t have a nesting platform, and I always look forward to seeing one or more when I take the Yellow Line over the Potomac. Most impressive is the latest statistic that the Chesapeake has the highest breeding population anywhere, which is even more impressive considering that the Osprey is found on six continents.
My biggest problem with the Osprey as the state bird of Maryland is that it is just our fair-weather friend. On a cold winter morning at Sandy Point State Park, only the hardiest of the Bay’s summer residents remain, but I can always count on surprising at least one Great Blue Heron. Any finger of the Bay, no matter how tiny it may be, will likely have a stately heron keeping watch, and unless the waters freeze, they’re always there. Even away from the water you can count on a flyover as the sun comes up or goes down. Perhaps the strongest recommendation of the GBH (as we birders call it) is that it already seems to have entered into the Marylander’s consciousness as a symbol of the state. On license plates throughout the state, it’s not the oriole but the heron that you see. The Minor League baseball team in Salisbury has a logo that looks suspiciously like a Great Blue (though they call it a shorebird). Most importantly, a friend of mine from Easton once offered me her opinion, unsolicited, that the state bird should be changed to the Great Blue Heron, providing the first seedlings that led to this project.
So there you have it: The Great Blue Heron is my choice for State Bird of Maryland.
Tags: Baltimore Oriole, Great Blue Heron, Maryland, Osprey
