Migrating Birds Boycott North Carolina

The enactment of the sweeping anti-LGBT law HB 2 has already resulted in PayPal scrapping plans for a new operations center in North Carolina and rock icon Bruce Springsteen cancelling a planned show in the state—and now many birds say they’ll take their seasonal migration elsewhere, too.

Barn Swallow

“I realize that despite the presence of the more liberal Research Triangle, North Carolina remains a deeply conservative state — Jesse Helms was in the Senate for 30 years after all. But this is too much. From now on, I’ll be summering in Georgia, which, while not exactly a progressive stronghold itself, is at least somewhere I can nest with my conscience mostly intact.”

Indigo Bunting Bird

“I think we all overlook injustice. After all, you’d be spending your entire life righting wrongs if you didn’t. But at some point you have to take a stand if your principles are in fact principles and not just feel-good bromides to help you sleep at night. This is such a moment for the indigo bunting bird.”

Black-And-White Warbler

“Take your binoculars out and peep at some bare branches, you stupid hairy enemies of social progress, because you’re not gonna have the black-and-white warbler to ogle ever again. Fuck this neo-Confederacy bullshit.”

Wren

“Of course, I’m profoundly saddened and disappointed, but at least I’ll be able to say that, once again, wrens were on the right side of history. I’ll be able to tell my chicks exactly what I did at this crucial moment—well, at least any that aren’t killed by their siblings while competing for food.”

Ostrich

“I’m not going anywhere. I didn’t ask to be here in the first place. Some asshole brought me in a crate.”

Eastern Kingbird

“I’m not trying to punish the many tolerant people of North Carolina, and I’m not naive enough to think that the radically conservative state government is going to see the light just because I’m not here eating insects six months out of the year. But it’s all I can do, you know?”