Illinois' state bird is the cardinal, for now. A proposal is trying to change that. 

It's called Senate Bill 690 and it's being sponsored by Sen. Tom Rooney from Rolling Meadows. It basically will eliminate state symbols such as the state bird, state flower, state pie and the such.

The reasoning behind it is flimsy at best. Rooney says:

... too many state symbols has caused the value of the "important" ones to suffer.

If it passes the only symbols left would be the state flag, state seal, state motto and the state song.

I personally don't have a problem with this other than it being a complete waste of time. It's kind of neat and a fun story when Illinois gets a new state vegetable (corn). I guess Senator Rooney disagrees with me.

Either way hopefully this doesn't take much time or energy. God knows Illinois doesn't have anything else to worry about.

P.S. Here's what Illinois state song sounds like. You probably didn't even know we had one. I did. But then again I was a member of the Varsity Men's Glee Club at the University of Illinois. NBD but KBD.

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