Which would you make bird of Britain? Feathers are 飛行機で行くing in a 競争 to choose a new 国家の symbol

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Swanning around: The swan is one of the birds up for the 肩書を与える of Britain's 国家の bird

The 部隊d 明言する／公表するs has the bald eagle, Zambia has the African fish eagle. フラン has a farmyard rooster, Antigua has the magnificent フリゲート艦 bird, Cambodia the 巨大（な） ibis, Honduras the scarlet macaw, India the peacock.

But what have we got? Britain hasn’t got a 国家の bird. Why should we be 奪うd??

It is a question that bothered David Lindo, a birdwatcher and 放送者 who styles himself the 都市の Birder.

His 使節団 in life is connecting ordinary people with our fabulous ordinary birds. Birds should be 利用できる to us all, after all. And so he put the idea of a 国家の bird on his website, and that idea became a （選挙などの）運動をする.

He wants the people of Britain to choose the 種類 they want as 国家の bird, and then 嘆願（書） the 政府 to make it 公式の／役人.

My own suggestion was a swallow, a bringer of both joy and summer with an irresistible mastery of the 空気／公表する and a 甘い, two-syllable call, the muffled first syllable rising to a strong second: ter-peep!?

They use it to 発表する their arrival at their nesting 場所／位置, 宙返り飛行ing into a barn or, at my home in Norfolk, the stables.

It’s a charming, jaunty sound as they hurtle beneath the eaves, looking as though they are about to 衝突，墜落 into the 塀で囲む before they 激突する on the ブレーキs and alight on the nest as soft as a kiss.

And, on occasion, they can look recklessly 勇敢に立ち向かう. Above me one day, they played out one of those instantaneous 野性生物 演劇s that catch you by surprise. Their calls were becoming 強調する／ストレスd and 緊急の and I turned my 注目する，もくろむs skyward.

There, 脅迫的な as a 爆撃機, was a sparrowhawk, and an attack was in 進歩. But the sparrowhawk was no longer 脅すing the swallows ― in fact, it was the other way 一連の会議、交渉／完成する.

The 爆撃機 was 疫病／悩ますd by three ― no, four ― gallant little 闘士，戦闘機- 計画（する）s 急襲するing out of the sun, 目的（とする）ing for the 長，率いる and ter-peeping fit to burst. The 強硬派 was 存在 out-turned and outgunned ― it 長，率いるd off across the 沼.

The swallow is my favourite, not least because it also has a vivid link with Africa ― where it spends its winters, 飛行機で行くing off as our summers end ― and the wider world beyond our shores. Yet, surprisingly, it has not even made the shortlist.

A 国家の bird should give the people of that nation 楽しみ, making us feel mildly good about ourselves, and at the same time it should tell people from どこかよそで mildly good things about us and the sort of people we think we are.

Mr Lindo has worked 負かす／撃墜する to a shortlist of ten. So it’s your choice now: from the soppy and sentimental to the offbeat and boastful (and why not?) school of thought.

So here they are: the 走者s and riders, along with my 査定／評価 of each for their individual Britishness and their looks.

Birds at war: The 女／おっせかい屋 Harrier and the Red 道具 are both 競争相手s for the 肩書を与える

1. Mute swan

A 罰金 and familiar bird, 有能な of looking magnificent at a distance yet they are oddly 国内の when の近くに up and 需要・要求するing bread from small children. It has a 確かな distinction, as the world’s second heaviest 飛行機で行くing bird (number one is the kori bustard of Africa).

Its 王室の 関係s ― many of our swans belong to the Queen ― are an advantage in some 注目する，もくろむs, and certainly the bird has played its part in many a 王室の 祝宴 in past centuries. But while the picture of elegance and romance ― pairs of swans mate for life ― a swan can also look wonderfully belligerent, like a man o’war in 十分な sail, when 成し遂げるing its 脅し behaviour.

It has an unearned 評判 for breaking the 武器 of fishermen, and can look rather off-puttingly superior, as though it were looking 負かす／撃墜する its beak at the world.

Britishness: 8/10. Looks: 9/10

2. Red 道具

A little 予期しない, this one. It probably makes the 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） because it is 堅固に associated with むちの跡s, the bird’s 伝統的な 要塞／本拠地, and because they delight everyone who has ever driven 負かす／撃墜する the M40 and seen the birds 巡航するing nonchalantly over the central 保留（地）／予約. In the past 20 years, these 罰金 birds of prey have become everybody’s bird.

Huffin' and Puffin': A rare but British bird

They are also 飛行機で行くing proof that good 自然保護 作品.?

They were brought 支援する to England with a brilliant reintroduction 計画／陰謀, showing that we can 回復する the beauties of our land when we have a mind to.?

They are wonderful fliers, masters of the glide. They tell us that we can 回復する the 害（を与える）s we have done to the wild world if we so choose.

Britishness: 7. Looks: 9

3. 女／おっせかい屋 Harrier

A very 予期しない one to be considered for 国家の bird.?

They are here because of 普及した 怒り／怒る and dis may at the 違法な 狙撃 of 女／おっせかい屋 harriers on grouse moors: they are birds of prey and they will take grouse.?

This year, three pairs bred in England: Defra says there is room for 300. They ask one big question: whose countryside is it anyway?

The males are as handsome a bird as you will find anywhere in the world, with an 平易な, floating flight.?

You don’t need to be a birdwatcher to have your day made by a 女／おっせかい屋 harrier. After all, birds of prey bring 演劇 wherever they turn up.

Britishness: 6. Looks: 10

4. Puffin

Puffins are the 広大な／多数の／重要な clowns of the sea ― though, in fact, the absurd beak is a 高度に efficient 道具 for 取引，協定ing with sand-eels. The beak is only （土地などの）細長い一片d so 劇的な when they are on shore for 産む／飼育するing.

As a 国家の bird they would stand for classic British eccentricity.

They are not birds most people have seen (try Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire in June) but they are の近くに to many hearts.

They are only with us for a few months of the year because they are seafarers ― and that’s as 深い a British tradition as any.

Britishness: 5. Looks: 9?

Taking flight:?Barn フクロウ and the small Wren both have a 発射 at winning

5. Barn フクロウ

A bird mostly glimpsed at 夜明け and dusk, with the 悪意のある 質s that 粘着する to all creatures of the dark. The human-like 直面する is pleasing to us, though it’s 現実に an adaptation for night-見通し and pinpoint 審理，公聴会.

Its 発言する／表明する is spooky and unbirdlike ― they have the 愛称 of screech フクロウ.

Their flight is slow and 静かな: they have 発展させるd to have silencers in their wings. With their erratic flights along hedges and 溝へはまらせる／不時着するs, they can いつかs 似ている 広大な／多数の／重要な, big moths.

Britishness: 6. Looks: 8

6. Wren

Homely, cheerful, indomitable: wrens are tiny, and 十分な of energy and noise. They are 一般に 設立する at 膝-高さ in 深い thickets, and have a song that seems impossibly loud for so small a bundle of feathers.

Wrens are humble, 国内の, and, on the surface, at least, rather ordinary. Only when you 支払う／賃金 them attention do you realise what 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の things they really are ― often overlooked but ever so feisty.

Perhaps that’s the 権利 sort of message one would want in a 国家の bird.

Britishness: 8. Looks: 3??

代表するing Britain: The コマドリ and the Kingfisher may be small, but they still stand out

7. Kingfisher

A 素晴らしい little bird and certainly Britain’s flashiest in looks and 速度(を上げる）.

They haunt 静かな stretches of water, and are much tinier than you’d 推定する／予想する.

So they can be hard to see: another bird loved more from pictures than person al experience.

They are not rare at all, but you need to sit 負かす／撃墜する 静かに in a likely 位置／汚点／見つけ出す for a decent length of time if you are to see one.

They nest in riverside burrows and are 一般に spotted as a vivid blue flash low over the water.

When seen in a good light, their colours are outrageously vivid.

Britishness: 7. Looks: 10

8. コマドリ

The コマドリ that sings in your garden in winter may be a 訪問者 from Scandinavia, but is no いっそう少なく welcome for that. There is an 半端物 thing about British コマドリs: they are bold and confiding, as every gardener knows. どこかよそで in Europe, コマドリs are shy and elusive. Does that say something about us?

They are loved, for sure, and やめる unmistakable. As symbols of Christmas, they 代表する the 過程 of going through hard times to find happiness. And they’re the favourite for the 国家の 肩書を与える.

Britishness: 7. Looks: 8

9. Blackbird

A male blackbird is a handsome bird with a 白人指導者べったりの東洋人-yellow 法案 and coal-黒人／ボイコット feathers. He’s also as good a singer as you can find in this country: the 広大な／多数の／重要な laidback flautist of the garden. Blackbirds are all about melody.

A lot of our winter blackbirds are Scandinavians taking advantage of our balmy 気候. Blackbirds may be familiar, but their musical excellence is far from commonplace. They 代表する the 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の nature of everyday 野性生物.

Britishness: 6. Looks: 7

Beautiful colourings: Both the blackbird and the blue tit would make excellent posterbirds for Britain

10. Blue tit

This was once a bird that kept to itself in the tree-canopy.

But garden bird-feeders have 誘惑するd it 負かす／撃墜する to our level, and made it one of our most familiar birds. Its 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の 曲芸 and pretty colouring mean it is now a garden favourite.

This intimate 関係 with the people who 料金d them gives us a message about the 楽しみ of looking after the wild world and the creatures that live in it.

Britishness: 8. Looks: 8??

IT’S OVER TO YOU . . .

井戸／弁護士席, that’s the lot. Now it’s up to you to do the choosing.

The mischief-製造者 in me says 女／おっせかい屋 harrier, the realist says コマドリ, the lover of self-deprecation says puffin, the conservationist says red 道具, the music-lover 前向きに／確かに 需要・要求するs blackbird, the dark 味方する of me wants barn フクロウ, the adventurer wants to 飛行機で行く like a swan, the 注目する，もくろむs want kingfisher, the sentimentalist says blue tit and the lover of the underdog prefers wren.

So in a way they’ve all won. Above all, it’s 広大な／多数の／重要な to talk about birds, it’s 広大な／多数の／重要な to enjoy birds, and it’s 広大な／多数の／重要な to live in a country that has such wonderful birds in it.

We should celebrate that truth more often than we do. This 投票（する） is a lovely 思い出の品 to do just that.

To cast your 投票（する） for Britain’s 国家の bird, go to votenationalbird.com