The threatened Florida Scrub-Jay would change the Northern Mockingbird as Florida’s official state hen if a brand new invoice filed within the legislature turns into regulation.
Sen. Tina Polsky, a Democrat from Boca Raton, filed SB 162 earlier this month in her try and elevate the Florida Scrub-Jay. It would take away the Mockingbird, which has been the Sunshine State’s official hen since 1927.
Polsky’s invoice famous that the Scrub-Jay is the one hen species that lives solely in Florida. It can discovered be in small habitats of low-growing scrub oak and sandy soils across Central Florida, from the Ocala National Forest south to close Lake Okeechobee.
The Northern Mockingbird, in the meantime, can be found in every state across the continental U.S. along with most of Mexico and components of the Caribbean.
“Protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Florida Scrub-Jay is also protected as a threatened species by the federal Endangered Species Act and as a federally designated threatened species by the Florida Endangered and Threatened Species rule,” Polsky’s invoice defined.
Polsky filed an analogous invoice final yr that failed, but it surely did garner the assist of a gaggle of Seminole High School college students who have been advocating for the Florida Scrub-Jay.
“Since the Scrub-Jay is found only in Florida, it should be chosen as the state bird without a doubt,” Navya Sharma, a senior at Seminole High, instructed the Sentinel in December 2022. She mentioned she hoped the state’s designation would convey consideration to preserving the threatened hen’s pure scrub habitat.
While the legislature didn’t undertake the Scrub-Jay measure final yr, the scholars have been in a position to get Seminole County commissioners make it the county’s official feathered creature.
