What bird best represents Kitchener? Residents will choose as city gets 'bird-friendly' designation
CBC
Kitchener is now a bird-friendly city.
"We were really excited," Bird Friendly Kitchener group member Meredith Blunt told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition host Craig Norris Tuesday morning of learning the news about the official designation.
"A bird-friendly city is a human-friendly city," Blunt said.
"The things that we hope to put in place and things that are already in place make Kitchener more sustainable, more biodiverse, a more green city so that we have parks to enjoy, we have urban wildlife to enjoy and we're preserving this and elevating it for our kids, for their kids, for our neighbours, for everyone who visits Kitchener."
City councillors heard the news that the city had received the official designation during Monday night's council meeting.
To earn Nature Canada's bird-friendly certification, the city has to prove they are working to reduce threats to birds by protecting and restoring natural habitat, and also engaging with the community about those efforts.
In a release on Tuesday, Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic said he was "thrilled" by the news.
"Our winged neighbours are an important part of our local natural ecosystem, and together with my council colleagues, I am pleased to see passionate community members working with city staff to live our shared values of cultivating a green city together," he said.
City council voted in favour of accepting the designation, which is necessary to move forward. Now, residents are being asked to choose one of four birds to represent the community.
The choices are:
Blunt says someone has created an Instagram account for the dark-eyed junco for the campaign "which is very entertaining."
She noted Killdeer are a shorebird, but they are often seen in parking lots around the region where they like to nest in gravel and rocky surfaces.
A merlin is a little falcon which can be seen hunting and nesting in spots like Kitchener's Victoria Park.
She says the chimney swift is "the ultimate urban bird" and often "tied to cities with industry and factories that built those big smokestacks."
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