Coin Birding

I often use a coin, a US 25¢ piece, to provide a sense of scale for images. And a couple of posts back I used one such coin in an image of a Northern Gray Tree Frog, with the parenthetical comment, "bonus points if you can ID the bird".

My friend and long time reader Johnny B. guessed "heron sp.".

Here is the coin in question:

I originally thought it was a Green Heron, but in researching it to answer another question of John's I discovered it is a Black-crowned Night Heron. Johnny got the bonus points.

As a birder I of coursed noticed the birds on coins and began to collect them, thinking they'd be more interesting than the standard issue in any photos I'd take. But it was Johnny's question that prompted me to look into what was up with birds on coins.

The bird most often associated with, and found on, US coins is the Bald Eagle.

This is the most common bird, dare I say a 'trash bird', found on US quarter dollar coins.

Here it is landing on the moon. Asphyxiation ensures.

And here we see the disappointed mom and chicks as dad brings home salad for dinner.

🦅  🦅  🦅  🦅  🦅

However, as the night heron shows, the US mint has been looking for inspiration at the other pages in their field guide, to the delight of coin collectors everywhere.

The America the Beautiful series of US quarters features a national park, wildlife refuge or other public land for each of the fifty states and some territories and commonwealths as well.

Here we have a Great Blue Heron and a Great Egret at Bombay Hook in Delaware. I've seen all three.

While I've been to Puerto Rico I do not recall seeing the Puerto Rican Parrot. Nor the Common Coquí tree frog. Perhaps if I had visited El Yunque National Forest.

No need to visit Kisatchie National Forest as we have Wild Turkeys in our yard.

No (avian) loons at our place.

Another two-for, Anhinga and Roseate Spoonbill, only one of which I've seen in NJ, guess which! (I've seen both in Florida.)

For this one, the guessing is to ID the bird. Good luck with that.

The other coin series making collectors (and coin birders) happy is the State Quarter Series.

Louisiana features the Brown Pelican.

Arkansas, the Mallard (maybe that's where they went). And what's with the giant hovering diamond?

The Carolina Wren graces the South Carolina coin.

While Oklahoma sports a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (point Oklahoma).

And the last species on our bird list for this post is the Peregrine Falcon.

Recapping, my 'coin list' has fourteen species on it, eleven of which are also on my New Jersey list, five on my yard list, and thirteen on my life list (I need that parrot!).

And lest you think I'm a bit loony, check out this site which I stumbled upon while searching for info on my bird coins, Daniel's Coin Zoo. A rather impressive collection. His 457 birds dwarfs my collection. And his twenty-three mollusks (mollusks!) bests my bird set as well.

🦃  🦜  🦢  🦩  🕊   🦅  🦆  🦉

And it was on the Coin Zoo site I learned there are at least nine more US bird coins for me to add to my list:

- State Quarters: California, Minnesota, and South Dakota.
- America the Beautiful Quarters: Cumberland Island, Great Smokie Mountains, Shawnee, and Chickasaw.
- DC and Territories Quarters: Virgin Islands, Northern Marianas Islands.

I will pay top dollar, well top quarter dollar, for each and everyone of these I receive. Check your change!