The official city bird of Vancouver is Anna’s hummingbird, beating out the varied thrush, northern flicker, and spotted towhee for the prestigious honour after an online vote.
Anna’s hummingbird takes over from 2016’s city bird, the peregrine falcon, but unlike its predecessor, and previous city birds the black-capped chickadee and the northwestern crow, it won’t be giving up the crown any time soon. This is a permanent appointment.
Just 8,259 votes were cast over two and a half weeks, which only proves that Anna’s hummingbird has a lot of work to do raising awareness about bird culture in Vancouver. That’s one of its new responsibilities, along with symbolizing the importance of birds in the local ecosystem.
Anna’s hummingbird collected 3,450 votes, nearly 800 more than the second-place finisher, the northern flicker. The varied thrush and spotted towhee received 1,265 and 891 votes, respectively. They never stood a chance. It’s hard to beat cute, and it doesn’t get much cuter than a tiny hummingbird with a reddish-pink crown.
The city bird was announced at a special event at the Vancouver Public Library, which featured plenty of pageantry, including appearances from each of the four finalists (in slightly off-putting human form).
The announcement was preceded by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra brass quintet’s debut performance of “The Gathering Flock”, a piece commissioned for the opening ceremony of the upcoming International Ornithological Congress. Vancouver will host this event, the largest gathering of bird scientists in the world, in August of 2018.
Anna’s hummingbird will now be the official spokesbird for the affair, as well as the first ever Vancouver Bird Festival in the same month. It’s a weighty list of responsibilities for such a small creature. With all that pressure, one can only hope that Anna’s hummingbird is unflappable.
The official city bird is not to be confused with the unofficial city bird, which everyone knows is Canuck the Crow.
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