Black-capped chickadee rules the roost as the City of Regina’s new official bird | CBC News
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The black-capped chickadee has been crowned as Regina’s new official bird.
Angela Tremka, program co-ordinator for Bird Friendly Regina, made the announcement to a gaggle of reporters at a Friday news conference.
“The accessibility of this bird makes it perfect for our city,” Mayor Sandra Masters said after the announcement. “My office got into a huge debate about ‘What about a prairie chicken, what about a chicken hawk, what about a …’ OK, calm down!”
The contest started in March 2022 when the City of Regina was declared a bird-friendly city by Nature Canada.
The black-capped chickadee has been crowned as Regina’s new official bird. Angela Tremka, program co-ordinator for Bird Friendly Regina, made the announcement to a gaggle of reporters at a Friday news conference.
In 2023, nominations started flying in, with as many as 700 finding a perch, according to the city. Six finalists were chosen, and a total of about 21,000 votes were cast.
The six finalists up for consideration were the peregrine falcon, red-breasted nuthatch, grey partridge, Canada goose, American pelican and black-capped chickadee.
Public voting took place from Nov. 30 to Dec. 10, but hatched conspiracy theories when the chickadee miraculously garnered thousands of votes overnight on Dec. 5.
That morning Stefani Langenegger, host of CBC Radio’s The Morning Edition, posted on social media that the chickadee had clearly won the contest. She said the bird had thousands more votes than its main contender — the red-breasted nuthatch.
Resident Marc Spooner said he had noticed something was off the previous week. Spooner is a fan of the red-breasted nuthatch, a bird he calls “noble” and “honest.” He and his family were watching the votes closely.
“On the night of Dec. 5 … we ate supper, we went to bed like normal. I didn’t expect anything was amiss,” Spooner said.
As always, Spooner checked the city’s voting page before bed to catch up on the numbers. He said the red-breasted nuthatch was ahead, followed closely behind by the chickadee.
“But when I woke up in the morning and I checked the totals, lo and behold, the chickadee had garnered 2,371 votes overnight while Regina sleeps. And that got me thinking, you know, Big Chickadee was behind this. Something was afoot.”
CBC has not been able to confirm that fraud of any kind took place. Now the controversy has been put to rest. The black-capped chickadee rules the roost.
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