CHIN RIDGE SEEDS - AUGUST 2026

Celebrating the Canada Jay

By Myrna Pearman, Mother Nature’s Naturalist and Backyard Birding Expert

In 2016, the Royal Canadian Geographic Society—after a country-wide search—announced that Canadians had chosen the Gray Jay as our national bird. In a widely publicized contest, the Gray Jay was chosen over Black-capped Chickadee, Common Loon, Canada Goose and Snowy Owl.

A team of ornithologists (who call themselves Team Canada Jay) then set about getting the name of this species changed from Gray Jay to Canada Jay, a name it held until the American Ornithologists’ Union lumped it with the Oregon Jay and renamed them both Gray Jay in 1957. The campaign was successful, with the American Ornithological Society (which the organization is now called) restoring the species’ official common name in 2018.

Efforts to get the Canada/Gray Jay officially designated as Canada’s national emblem by an act of Parliament started in 1901 and continue to this day! Team Canada Jay now leads the efforts to get the federal government to finally(!) ratify the naming in parliament. In early 2026, a Private Member’s Bill (called The National Bird of Canada Act) was read on the floor of the Senate and, in February 2026, organizations across the country sent letters of support, urging the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology to pass BILL S-221 (An Act to provide for the recognition of the Canada jay as the national bird of Canada) to officially declare the Canada Jay as Canada’s National Bird! We are still waiting.

The Canada Jay, a member of the corvid family, is native to the boreal forests of North America. Its bold, inquisitive and friendly demeanour has made it a favourite of many, especially back-country travelers. Long associated with humans, it also has other regional common names, including whiskey jack, camp robber and venison hawk. In Cree, it is known as wisakedjak – a folkloric trickster and shapeshifter. Wisakedjak was memorialized in Indigenous storytelling traditions across many northern communities.

This hardy icon of our country is a year-round resident in all thirteen Canadian provinces and territories and has a fitting name in both English and French: Canada Jay and “mésangeai du Canada.”

Let’s hope that the Canada Jay will soon become our official National Bird!