The Florida scrub jay could be one step closer to becoming the official state songbird now that the leading opponent of the idea has hung up her guns in the decades-old fight to replace the mockingbird.
Marion Hammer, a former Florida president of the National Rifle Association, told The Floridian on Friday that she’s stepping away from the scrub jay battle, first waged under her line of fire in 1999.
“I’m retired,” Hammer, 85, said in a text message when asked about a new bill revitalizing the issue. Filed Friday by Republican Rep. Jim Mooney of the Florida Keys, his bill would replace Florida's current state bird, the mockingbird, with the flamingo and make the three-ounce blue-and-gray scrub jay the official state songbird.
Hammer’s decision not to get involved is a far cry from her volley of attacks lobbed against the scrub jay beginning 26 years ago when Republican state Rep. Howard Futch introduced a bill nixing the mockingbird as Florida's bird and replacing it with the scrub jay, a bird so friendly it would eat peanuts from a child's hand, Futch said.
"Begging for food isn't sweet," Hammer said at the time. "It's lazy and it's a welfare mentality."
When asked about the 10,000 schoolchildren who signed a petition for the scrub jay, she replied, "That begs the question: did the other 2.5 million schoolchildren refuse to sign the petition because they wanted to keep the mockingbird?"
The bill was killed, and the mockingbird, the third-most common state bird nationwide, kept representing Florida until lawmakers tried again in a now-failed 2015 bill to replace the mockingbird.
"I'm ready," Hammer, who likes the mockingbird as the state bird, told The Tampa Bay Times. "I think Audubon got [the lawmaker] to file it just to get in my face."
In 2021, she was back. After another bill to boot the mockingbird was filed for the 2022 legislative session, she wrote in an opinion piece that the mockingbird is a "well-established, independent, prolific bird" that has "never needed government protection or our tax dollars to survive."
"It can be seen, watched, studied and enjoyed by children and adults in all areas of Florida," Hammer wrote. When lawmakers tried again in 2024, she wondered to Axios if the Legislature was simply "uninformed about history," considering the mockingbird has represented Florida since 1927.
In April 2024, the NRA "dumped" Hammer, allegedly terminating her retirement contract. After months of back and forth, she has officially separated from the pro-gun association.
Besides Florida, the mockingbird represents four other states: Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee, and Mississippi. If Rep. Mooney's bill passes, Florida will be the only state to have selected the scrub jay or flamingo as its official birds.
The session starts on March 4.
