Effort launched to make the chicken the state bird of Georgia

By Mike Morris

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An Augusta restaurateur has launched a grass roots effort to change Georgia's official state bird from the brown thrasher to the chicken.

"I've got a lot of brown thrashers in my back yard; they're all over the place," said Chris Cunningham, president of the company that operates eight Wife Saver restaurants in Georgia and South Carolina.  "My wife and I, we sit on the patio and have a cocktail and we were sitting there thinking, ‘what a waste.' The brown thrasher is the state bird, and what's it ever done for the state of Georgia?"

The brown thrasher, Cunningham says, "hasn't done anything. It's a pretty bird, nothing against the brown thrasher, but the chicken brings millions of dollars."

Cunningham points to the chicken processing industry in northeast Georgia, saying that "chicken that's processed in the state of Georgia is shipped all over the world. If it wasn't for the chicken, Georgia's economy would be in the tank."

Cunningham, whose family opened the first Wife Saver restaurant in Augusta in 1965, is so adamant about the need for a change that he is spearheading a new Web site crowing about the idea, flipthebirds.com.

On the Web site, which is chock full of fowl facts and trivia, Cunningham asks visitors to sign an online petition and to write their state representatives. He also talks about his effort to further the cause of the chicken.

"People need to get online, call us, get a yard sign, ask for a t-shirt, do something," Cunningham said. "I just want to see how people think about it, and maybe the legislators might listen to us. At last the chicken will get a little respect out of the deal."