Tennessee’s State Birds

“There remain only five states that have as yet not joined in the selection of a State bird. These are Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey, and Tennessee.”

So wrote state bird proponent Katherine B. Tippetts in Nature Magazine in 1932. (Of course, Alaska and Hawaii weren’t states at the time.)

Tippetts though the painted bunting, or nonpareil, would make an appropriate Tennessee mascot. Though her favorite was’t adopted, Tippetts’ article may have spurred Tennessee bird lovers into action.

The Tennessee Ornithological Society planned a state-wide balloting for the selection of an official state bird. Beginning on March 15, 1933, the Nashville Banner began printing a series of articles on fifteen candidates, including the mockingbird, robin, wood thrush, bluebird, flicker, pileated woodpecker, brown thrasher, field sparrow, cardinal, Bewick’s wren, towhee, sparrow hawk, chickadee, and bobwhite.

Tennesseans adopted the first and last named candidates. According to the Nashville Banner of April 16, 1933, the Mockingbird was selected on April 11. Of the 72,031 votes cast, the mockingbird received 15,553, the robin 15,073, the cardinal 13,969, the bobwhite 10,460, the bluebird 9,125, and others 8,751. The robin was actually ahead, until votes from the Memphis area (Shelby County) began coming in.

Coronation Day

The mockingbird officially became the state bird on April 22, 1933, the same day the iris became the state flower.

A state-wide contest to select the best mockingbird poem was announced on April 9, 1933, in the Nashville Banner, co-sponsored by the Knoxville News-Sentinel, the Memphis Press-Scimitar, and the Chattanooga News. (Why would they announced a mockingbird poetry contest on April 9 if the mockingbird was’t selected until April 11 isn’t clear.)

The Nashville Banner later announced a tie between poems written by Mrs. Grace Armstrong Allen of Nashville and Miss Elizabeth Crow of Etowah. A judge declared Mrs. Allen’s creation the winner.

The bobwhite quail was adopted as Tennessee’s official state game bird in 1988.

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