TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Republican Rep. Jim Mooney filed a bill last Friday that would designate the American flamingo as the official state bird and the Florida scrub-jay as the official state songbird.
Under HB 81, the American flamingo would replace the mockingbird as the official state bird of Florida. The mockingbird has been the state bird of Florida since 1927.
Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee, and Mississippi also designate the mockingbird as its state bird. The bird is one of the more common backyard birds in the United States…