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Canada's NEW National Bird – Gray Jay or Grey Jay?

November 17, 2016

Meanwhile in Canada…

Canadian Geographic announced this week that after a year of polling and consulting and debating, the 'gray jay' is their top choice for National Bird of Canada. News got around quickly on Twitter as #CanadaBird began to trend.

While many Canadians wondered why a more well-known bird such as the loon or Canada goose weren't chosen, other language geeks (including our very own illustrator Robyn), wondered why Canadian journalists were calling it a "gray jay" instead of a "grey jay." In fact, some Canadians were so angry with the choice (and spelling) that they began using the hashtag #NotMyNationalBird.

When we asked Canadian Geographic to comment on the spelling, they responded that "gray jay" was the "scientific" name. (And here we thought that was Perisoreus canadensis.) From what our editor Tanya gathered from Oxford Canadian Dictionary of Current English, this bird is also known as the "grey jay" or more commonly the "whisky jack" (though many spell it "whiskey jack" due to its origins in the Cree & Algonquin languages) or "Canada jay."

Some eagle-eyed subscribers may have already noticed that we quickly added the "gray jay" to our recently completed Birds flashcard set. Unlike our ready-made lessons, which are offered in Canadian and/or US spelling, our flashcards default to US usage, which is why we've used the American spelling "gray jay" for our latest addition.

If you teach in Canada and are using this flashcard to share this fascinating Canadian news with your students, we welcome you to adjust the spelling by editing the image before you hit print (as you can do with any of the 2,000+ vocabulary images in our library).

Our gray jay flashcard with an editable text field

So what's the word, Canada? Tweet @ESLlibrary and share your own thoughts about the new #CanadaBird and its American name.

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Comments (1)

Tara Benwell(Author)

The editor of Canadian Geographic has a good explanation of the spelling choice here:
'We wholeheartedly agree that the Canadian/British spelling of 'grey' would be preferable, but this is the species' official name, and recognized as such by the American Ornithologists' Union and other international bodies. ' Read more in the comments section here: https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/meet-our-national-bird-gray-jay

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