Unlike the United States, which has the bald eagle, France, the rooster, and Brazil, the rufous-bellied thrush, the United Kingdom has no official bird as its symbol.
A vote in the 1960s found the robin – he/she of the snowy Christmas card – to be Britain’s favourite ornithological representative. An online poll seeking to test that closes on Thursday.
Sixty “candidates” have been whittled down to 10 – the robin, puffin, hen harrier, red kite, mute swan, barn owl, blackbird, blue tit, and wren.
The pecking order will be known on Friday, around the time results from that other election appear. – Reuters
