Chick-a-dee-dee cheater? Fowl play alleged in Regina official bird vote

People who voted in a competition to decide the City of Regina's official bird are chirping about the results. There have been some seedy allegations that the projected winner — the black-capped chickadee — feathered its nest with illegitimate votes.

CBC launched an investigation.

Voting took place online from Nov. 30 to Dec. 10. Results were visible to the public on the city's website early Monday morning, after the voting closed the previous evening. They were soon taken down, so the public can no longer see how many votes each bird in the running garnered.

That morning Stefani Langenegger, host of CBC Radio's The Morning Edition, posted on social media that the chickadee had clearly won as the city's official bird. She said the bird had thousands more votes than its main contender — the red-breasted nuthatch.

But Regina resident Marc Spooner said he had noticed something was off the previous week. Spooner is a fan of the red-breasted nuthatch, a bird he calls "noble" and "honest." He and his family were watching the votes closely.

"On the night of Dec. 5 … we ate supper, we went to bed like normal. I didn't expect anything was amiss," Spooner said.

Like always, Spooner checked the city's voting page before bed to get caught up on the numbers. He said the red-breasted nuthatch was ahead, followed closely behind by the chickadee.

"But when I woke up in the morning and I checked the totals, lo and behold, the chickadee had garnered 2,371 votes overnight while Regina sleeps. And that got me thinking, you know, Big Chickadee was behind this. Something was afoot."

Spooner alleges fraud of some kind occurred sometime between 8 p.m. CST on Dec. 5 and 8 a.m. CST on Dec. 6. He said that votes for the red-breasted nuthatch went up by only 106 during that period.

"I'm just a local person. An area resident. But I need to expose this," Spooner told CBC.

Regina's new official bird will be announced on Jan. 5, 2024. Spooner said he hopes justice prevails.

"When the chickadee gets disqualified — and I'm hoping that this investigation will prove that the chickadee was up to no good — the nuthatch will be reinstated as the proper and only victor of this contest."

Some Regina voters say the red-breasted nuthatch was robbed in the vote for the city's official bird. (Submitted by Rachel Ling)

Chickadees not what they seem: birder

CBC spoke with chickadee advocate Ryan Fisher of Regina about the allegations. He maintains that the chickadee is the "friendliest bird," but said there is room for many favourite birds in Regina. While some tell CBC they feel the chickadee swooped in on wings of deceit to steal the title, Fisher said he will wait patiently and trust the process.

"We're not going to count our chickadees until they hatch, and we'll wait for the official announcement to see what's going on," Fisher said.

Regina birder Trevor Herriot, who favoured the Canada Goose, said he agrees with Spooner that something appears to have been amiss with the voting.

"I was afraid this is going to happen. Chickadees are devious little birds. All that cuteness and stuff. Chickadee this and chickadee that. It's all part of, like, a master plan," Herriot said.

"That cuteness … it gets into you like a brain-worm. Pretty soon you find yourself up late at night trying to figure out ways to hack a voting system. I think I heard the same thing happen in Calgary," said Harriet, calling it "chickadee voter fraud."

CBC has not been able to confirm that fraud of any kind took place.

Over in Calgary, in 2022, the chickadee beat out the magpie to become that city's official bird. With Regina poised to do the same, Calgary city councillor Kourtney Penner said she isn't mad about it.

"I don't have any problems sharing. But I will say … we had it first. We had it first," Penner said.

Prarie naturalist, writer and Regina birder Trevor Herriot says chickadees are not to be trusted. (Submitted by Trevor Herriot)

Over in Ontario, the mayor of Guelph — which has also in recent years named the chickadee its official bird — was a little more plucky about the situation.

In a statement, Mayor Cam Guthrie told CBC News that Regina's mayor "should be careful as Guelph's chickadees are outfitted with lasers that will patrol our city for any rogue Regina chickadees. So be forewarned!"

No answers

CBC asked Herriot about that dark night, Dec. 5 into Dec. 6, when the chickadees got those 2,371 votes.

"I saw it. I mean, these birds are not what they pretend to be. I've seen chickadees taking over the nesting holes of red-breasted nuthatches. And once I think I saw a goose carcass down by the lake and a chickadee was snacking on it."

The City of Regina would not agree to an interview, but it did issue a written statement.

"We have heard about the conspiracy theory and are glad the competition had the result we wanted — residents engaged and invested in 'their bird.' Over the course of the 11-day voting period, we had over 24,000 visitors to the page and almost 20,000 votes."

The black-capped chickadee is facing serious allegations of voter fraud in Regina. (Submitted by Andrew Holland)

The city did not release the official vote tally for each bird.

Ward 1 Coun. Cheryl Stadnichuk was the representative for the red-breasted nuthatch during the voting period. She's claiming a moral victory.

"I think that the red-breasted nuthatch won the hearts of people in Regina," said Stadnichuk.

The councillor remained diplomatic about the voting system and results.

"I think the red-breast nuthatch is the fairest of the fowl. But all of the birds that were on that list were pretty amazing birds."

CBC News will continue to follow as this story unfolds.