Is the Loon the National Bird of Canada? Quick Answer

No, the loon is not Canada's official national bird. As of today, Canada does not have a formally designated national bird at all. The common loon is strongly tied to Canadian identity, especially in Ontario where it is the official provincial bird, but no federal legislation has ever made any bird Canada's official national symbol. A bill currently before Parliament (Bill S-221) would designate the Canada jay, not the loon, as the national bird if it passes.

What actually counts as a 'national bird' in Canada

Canada's official national symbols are formally adopted through legislation or royal assent. A good example is the beaver, which became an official national symbol when the National Symbol of Canada Act received royal assent on March 24, 1975. That kind of statutory backing is what separates a true official symbol from something that is just widely recognized or popular.

The Government of Canada's own 'Symbols of Canada' page on Canada.ca is upfront about this distinction. It notes that some symbols, though widely known and accepted, have not been formally adopted. When you check that page for a national bird, you won't find one listed among the officially designated symbols. That is the clearest sign that Canada simply does not have an official national bird yet.

Why the loon feels so Canadian

The association between the loon and Canadian identity is completely understandable. Canada hosts an enormous share of the global common loon (Gavia immer) population, with a significant portion of the world's loons breeding in Canadian lakes, including large numbers in Ontario and Quebec. The common loon is the bird that often gets assumed to be the national bird, but Canada does not officially designate one yet Canada hosts an enormous share of the global common loon. The loon's haunting call has become shorthand for the Canadian wilderness experience in a way that almost nothing else matches.

Then there's the money. what bird is on the $100 note nz money. Money can also be misleading, but the common loon is not the bird officially designated as Canada’s national bird. Canada's one-dollar coin, introduced in 1987, features a common loon on its reverse side. That bird on the one-dollar coin is the common loon, which is sometimes mistakenly assumed to be the national bird. That coin became so iconic it earned the nickname 'the loonie,' and Canadians use that word every single day. When your currency is nicknamed after a bird, it's easy to assume that bird must be the national one.

The loon also dominated public polling when the Royal Canadian Geographical Society ran its National Bird Project in 2016. The loon received overwhelming public support, which generated a lot of media coverage framing it as 'Canada's national bird.' Canadian Geographic even published an explicit case for why the loon should hold that title. All of this built a cultural story that felt official even though no legislation backed it up.

Where the confusion comes from

A few overlapping factors have made the 'loon as national bird' claim stick hard in public memory.

• The loonie coin: Millions of Canadians handle a loon-emblazoned dollar coin daily, which naturally creates an association with official national status.
• Provincial confusion: Ontario officially adopted the common loon as its provincial bird on June 23, 1994, under the Avian Emblem Act. That is a real legal designation, but it applies to one province, not the whole country.
• Media framing: The 2016 Royal Canadian Geographical Society selection process generated widespread headlines calling the gray jay (and earlier the loon) 'Canada's national bird,' even though the federal government never committed to any designation.
• Older documents and websites: Some archived PDFs and older web pages flatly state 'The Common Loon is the national bird of Canada,' presenting the claim as fact. That kind of confident misinformation spreads easily and is hard to walk back.
• Assumption by default: Surveys and reporting have found that many Canadians simply assumed a national bird already existed and guessed it was either the loon or the Canada goose, without ever verifying it.

How to verify this yourself today

The fastest way to check is to go directly to Canada.ca and search for 'Symbols of Canada' or 'Official symbols of Canada' under the Canadian Heritage section. You'll see a list of formally adopted national symbols. Scroll through it and look for any bird designation. Right now, you won't find one. That absence is the answer.

1. Visit Canada.ca and navigate to 'Canadian identity and society,' then 'Symbols of Canada.'
2. Check the 'Official symbols of Canada' page for any bird listed as a formally adopted national symbol.
3. Search LEGISinfo (the Parliament of Canada's legislative database) for 'national bird' to see the status of Bill S-221, which would designate the Canada jay.
4. Check the Justice Laws website for the National Symbol of Canada Act to understand how symbols are formally adopted and whether a bird amendment has been added.

Bill S-221, titled the National Bird of Canada Act, is the live legislative proposal you'll find on LEGISinfo. It names the Canada jay, not the loon, as the proposed national bird. The Canada jay (often called the blue jay) is the bird Parliament has been asked to designate as the national bird. Until that bill or something similar passes and receives royal assent, no bird holds official national status.

So what is the loon officially recognized as?

At the federal level, the common loon has no national symbol designation. What it does have is real legal recognition in two other contexts: it is Ontario's official provincial bird under the Avian Emblem Act (1994), and it is a protected species under the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act, which places it on Canada's list of protected migratory bird species. Neither of those is the same as being a national symbol.

The loon's cultural footprint in Canada is enormous and well-earned. It appears on the currency, it breeds across the country's vast lake systems, and it has become a genuine emblem of Canadian wilderness. In New Zealand, the 5 dollar note features a different bird than the common loon often associated with Canada appears on the currency. But 'culturally iconic' and 'officially designated national symbol' are different things, and Canada has never crossed that line for any bird. If and when Bill S-221 passes, it would be the Canada jay, not the loon, that gets the official title. Until then, the honest answer is that Canada has no national bird at all.

The loon vs. the Canada jay: a quick comparison

The debate between the loon and the Canada jay (gray jay) is worth understanding because it explains why this question keeps coming up. The two birds represent genuinely different ideas about what Canada's national symbol should stand for.

If you're trying to answer a quiz question or settle a debate, the safest and most accurate answer is: Canada has no officially designated national bird. The loon is Ontario's provincial bird and a powerful cultural symbol, but it is not a national symbol in law. The Canada jay is the bird that Parliament has been asked to designate, and that process is still ongoing.