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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Great blue heron bows to goldfinch as state bird

ORG XMIT: ORROS101 A great blue heron holds a small fish after catching it in a pond at Stewart Park in Roseburg, Ore., on Monday, July 20, 2009.  (AP Photo/The News-Review, Robin Loznak) (Robin Loznak / The Spokesman-Review)
ORG XMIT: ORROS101 A great blue heron holds a small fish after catching it in a pond at Stewart Park in Roseburg, Ore., on Monday, July 20, 2009. (AP Photo/The News-Review, Robin Loznak) (Robin Loznak / The Spokesman-Review)

BIRDING -- The fish-eating great blue heron dwarfs seed-eating songbirds in size, but the diminutive willow goldfinch will continue to reign in greater stature as the Washington State Bird.

Proposals at the State Legislature to replace the finch with the GBH as the state bird didn’t get a hearing before last week's cuttoff in either the Senate or the House government committees, despite having a bill in each chamber.



Rich Landers
Rich Landers joined The Spokesman-Review in 1977. He is the Outdoors editor for the Sports Department writing and photographing stories about hiking, hunting, fishing, boating, conservation, nature and wildlife and related topics.

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