On June 27th, 1935 the New Jersey legislature
designated the Eastern Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis)
as the official New Jersey state bird.
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| photo by Jen Goellnitz on Flickr (noncommercial use permitted with attribution / no derivative works). |
It is now known as the American Goldfinch.
Dryden Kuser, a New Jersey State Senator from Somerset County from 1930 to 1936, had also lived here in Sussex County, N. J.
Mr. Kuser was interested in ornithology and introduced the bill in 1935 that made the eastern goldfinch the official state bird.
He was a former president of the New Jersey Audubon Society and was the author of two books on birds. Since 1958 he had been a consultant to the New Jersey State Department of Conservation and Economic Development.
Mr. Kuser was born in Newark, the son of Anthony R. and Susie Dryden Kuser. The land for High Point State Park was donated by Colonel Anthony R. and Susie Dryden Kuser and dedicated as a park in 1923.
