Birds at Large: Uncanny X-Men

Coming to comic book stores near you on Feb 13th: Uncanny X-Men #1 Deadpool 53 State Bird Variant

marvel.com

“Ornithology is one of America’s greatest past times,” mentioned Senior Editor Nick Lowe. “With Inauguration day and Spring just around the corner – we could think of no better way than to celebrate our history with a beaked representative from every state including Puerto Rico and then some!” - comicbookresources.com

What a great tie-in of my life-controlling hobby and geeky-love for comics! The problem is most birders will be quick to notice the outliers in this otherwise beautifully illustrated cover. Lets break it down:

click on the image to view larger

• King Vulture - first glaring error... they do look cool though
• Common Grackle - wrong, not any state's bird
• Brown Pelican - Louisiana (1)
• Hermit Thrush - Vermont (2)
• Northern Mockingbird - Arkansas (3), Florida (4), Mississippi (5), Tennessee (6), Texas (7)
• Emu - nope
• Baltimore Oriole - Maryland (8)
• California Gull - Utah (9)
• Red-capped Manakin - negative, but at least another cool bird
• Hermit Warbler - no
• American Robin - Michigan (10), Wisconsin (11)
• Brown Thrasher - Georgia (12) see also Northern Bobwhite
• Knobbed Hornbill - endemic to Indonesia
• Magnolia Warbler - noo
• Purple Finch - New Hampshire (13) & New Mexico?
• Mountain Bluebird - Idaho (14) & Nevada (15)
• Greater Roadrunner - New Mexico (16)
• Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - Oklahoma (17)
• Savannah Sparrow - probably suppose to be a Yellowhammer but I'm not remaking the graphic...
• Wild Turkey - state game bird of: Alabama, Massachusetts, and South Carolina
• Ring-necked Pheasant - South Dakota (18)
• American Goldfinch - Iowa (19), New Jersey (20), Washington (21)
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird - nope
• Wood Duck - Mississippi's 'state waterfowl'
• Chuck-will’s-widow - nice family representation but doesn't belong to a state
• Willow Ptarmigan - Alaska (22)
• Guam Rail - Guam (23)
• Greater Flamingo - included because they are recognizable?
• Western Meadowlark - Kansas (24), Montana (25), Nebraska (26), North Dakota (27), Oregon (28), Wyoming (29)
• Northern Cardinal - Illinois (30), Indiana (31), Kentucky (32), North Carolina (33), Ohio (34), Virginia (35), West Virginia (36)
• Cactus Wren - Arizona (37)
• Bridled Titmouse - not a state bird but an interesting pick
• Stellar’s Jay - nada
• Northern Flicker - Alabama (38)
• Lark Bunting - Colorado (39)
• Rainbow Lorikeet - turn it into a Mariana Fruit-dove and we could count it as a territory...
• Wood Thrush - D.C. (40)
• Puerto Rican Spindalis - Puerto Rico (41)
• Carolina Wren - South Carolina (42)
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow - nope
• Bananaquit - U.S. Virgin Islands (43)
• Common Kingfisher - couldn't have made it a Belted?
• Black-capped Chickadee - Maine (44) & Massachusetts (45)
• Barn Owl - not a state bird
• Eastern Bluebird - Missouri (46), New York (47)
• White-breasted Nuthatch - nope
• N éné - Hawaii (48)
• Northern Bobwhite - game bird of Tennessee and Georgia
• Rhode Island Red Chicken - where? (49)
• Blue Hen Chicken - Delaware (50)
• Ruffed Grouse - Pennsylvania (51)
• Common Loon - Minnesota (52)
• California Quail - California (53)

I am very impressed by this list, mostly because there are a number of birds here that are not 'state birds'. Personally, I could do without the hornbill or flamingo but it was cool to see some species that are otherwise unknown or under appreciated [to the non-birding community] prominently featured.

Would you believe that the illustrator, Stuart Immonen, is actually a birder? In an interview about the cover with comicsalliance.com he covers everything from differentiating thrushes to using eBird.org. The interview is also loaded with Immonen's photos and even some Charlie Harper-esque artwork of birds and can be found at: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/02/07/stuart-immonen-deadpool-birds-uncanny-x-men-variant-cover/

I'll be reserving myself a copy...