Birders Find Postage With Flair For Feathers

Eagles, the symbol of the Republic, have been a popular postage stamp design since the earliest days of the U.S. Postal Service.

A number of other birds recently have turned up as useful adjuncts to the rather inconvenient amounts involved in postage increases.

For instance, going from 29 to 32 cents in 1992, the 3-cent bluebird came in handy as did the 1-cent American kestrel. Incidentally that also was the year of a five-cent hummingbird issue, featuring the ruby-throated, broad-billed, rufous calliope and Costa’s.

Letter-writing birders use a lot of 30-cent cardinals, accompanied by a 2-cent red-headed woodpecker, for correspondence. For postcards, of course, there’s 20-cent blue jay.

Such attractive and lifelike designs, whether birds, flowers or something else, are a relatively new development. Stamps used to focus heavily on history, commemoration or a message. That has changed over the years, with a variety of birds particularly included in frequent wildlife or conservation issues.

Do you remember the 8-cent first class mail? An early set of four stamps issued in 1972 had a cardinal along with a pelican, seal and sheep.

Six years later a set of eight 13-cent stamps included four birds: a cardinal, blue jay, mallard and a Canada goose. Shortly thereafter, four owls comprised a set of 15-cent stamps in a wildlife conservation issue.

In 1982 an imposing set of 20-cent stamps was issued, one for each state, featuring both the state bird and flower. Another fifty-stamp series, this time 22-cent American wildlife stamps, was issued in 1987. Included were the blue jay, mockingbird, red-winged blackbird, barn swallow, broad-tailed hummingbird, scarlet tanager - and the gray squirrel.

The rose-breasted grosbeak made a colorful 25-cent stamp in 1988, and the mountain bluebird celebrated Idaho statehood on another 25-center in 1990.

In 1994 whooping and black-necked cranes were included in an issue of twenty 29-cent stamps. Today, many of these are difficult or impossible to locate and buy. Attempts a year ago to acquire 29-cent red squirrel stamps, an early self-adhesive issued in 1993, were fruitless.

So, if you see bird stamps you like, buy them before they go out of print or out of fashion.