I recently came across an infographic about ‘State Birds of India’ on a Nature Group that I am part of. I am sure we all know that the Peacock is the National Bird of India, but did you know that each state of India (and most Union Territories) also have their own ‘State’ bird?

Not just Bird, each of them also has their own State Animal, Tree and Flower. The ENVIS site of Forest Research Institute has a helpful page on these – http://www.frienvis.nic.in/KidsCentre/State-Animals-Birds-Trees-Flowers-of-India_1500.aspx

Here are some (hopefully interesting!) observations of the various State Birds:

The Indian Roller is the most common State Bird across India with 3 states – Karnataka, Telengana and Odisha – having this beautiful bird as their State Bird.

The state in the extreme South West of the country – Kerala – shares its State Bird with the state in the extreme North East of the country – Arunachal Pradesh. This is the Great Hornbill. And this reflects the commonality of habitat at these two extremes of the country, separated by over 3,000 kilometres of vastly different ecological habitats in between.

The intriguingly named Mrs. Hume’s Pheasant is the State Bird of the North Eastern states of Manipur and Mizoram. The Hill Myna, an excellent mimic – is shared by Chattisgarh and Meghalaya.

Hill Myna – By AbirMahmud – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79786187

Asian Koel – By The original uploader was Challiyan at Malayalam Wikipedia. – Transferred from ml.wikipedia to Commons by Sreejithk2000 using CommonsHelper., CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12040770

By Pranav Yaddanapudi – originally posted to Flickr as Indian Sparrow, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8724433

Two of our more common birds – Asian Koel and House Sparrow – are shared by Jharkhand and Puducherry and Bihar and Delhi respectively.

Among more iconic species, the Sarus Crane is the State Bird of Uttar Pradesh, while the Great Indian Bustard is the State Bird of Rajasthan. An interesting anecdote relating to the Great Indian Bustard – apparently the only reason the Peacock was chosen as India’s National Bird was due to the unfortunate similarity of the Bustard’s name with another word in the Indian language… Which is a shame, because being India’s National Bird could greatly have improved the chances of this – India’s largest and one of the world’s heaviest flying – birds survival in the wild.

Note:

All Images have been sourced from Wikimedia Commons. Here are the attributions:

• Indian Roller – Akshaygn at English Wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
• Great Indian Hornbill – Ciby k thampy [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
• Mrs. Hume’s Pheasant – Internet Archive Book Images [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons
• Hill Myna – AbirMahmud [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
• Asian Koel – The original uploader was Challiyan at Malayalam Wikipedia. [CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons
• Indian House Sparrow – Pranav Yaddanapudi [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
• Sarus Crane – Charles J Sharp [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
• Great Indian Bustard – Kesavamurthy N [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons