Northern Mockingbird

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Northern Mockingbird
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Mimidae Genus: Mimus Species: M. polyglottos
Binomial name
Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758)
Northern Mockingbird range Green = all-year, yellow = summer only

The Northern Mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos, is the only mockingbird commonly found in North America. This species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 as Turdus polyglottos.^[2]

The Northern Mockingbird breeds in southeastern Canada, the United States, northern Mexico, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and the Greater Antilles. It is replaced further south by its closest living relative, the Tropical Mockingbird (Mimus gilvus). The endangered Socorro Mockingbird is, contrary to previous opinion, also closely related.^[3][4]

This bird is mainly a permanent resident, but northern birds may move south during harsh weather. This species has occurred in Europe as an extreme rarity.

[edit] Ecology

A Northern Mockingbird taking shelter from the rain in a Weeping Holly tree

Mockingbird feeding an infant Mockingbird

These birds forage on the ground or in vegetation; they also fly down from a perch to capture food. They mainly eat insects, berries and seeds. While foraging they frequently spread their wings in a peculiar two-step motion to display the white patches. There lacks consensus among ornithologists over whether this behavior is purely a territorial display, or whether the flashing white patches startles insects into giving up their cover.

The Northern Mockingbird builds a twig nest in a dense shrub or tree. It aggressively defends this nest and the surrounding area against other birds and animals, including humans. When a predator is persistent, mockingbirds from neighboring territories, summoned by a distinct call, may join the attack. Other birds may gather to watch as the mockingbirds harass the intruder. In addition to harassing domestic cats^[5] and dogs they consider a threat, it is not unheard of for mockingbirds to target humans. One famous incident in Tulsa, Oklahoma involving a postal carrier resulted in the distribution of a warning letter to residents.^[6]

Mockingbirds' willingness to nest near houses, their loud and frequent songs, and their territorial defense often annoy people. John van der Linden, author of the Eastern Birding Central FAQ, reports 25 to 50 percent of the e-mail questions he receives are concerned with how to deal with annoying mockingbirds.

Mockingbirds have a strong preference for certain trees such as maple, sweetgum, and sycamore. They generally avoid pine trees after the other trees have grown their leaves. Also, they have a particular preference for high places, such as the topmost branches of trees. Mockingbirds are often found in urban and suburban areas, where they perch on telephone poles, streetlights, or high points on buildings. While singing on a high perch they will often bolt several feet into the air in a looping motion, with wings outstretched to display their white underside, then land back on the perch without breaking a note. This action serves as a territorial display.

[edit] Song and calls

Although many species of bird imitate other birds, the Northern Mockingbird is the best known in North America for doing so. It imitates not only birds but also other animals and mechanical sounds such as car alarms. As convincing as these imitations may be to humans, they often fail to fool other birds, such as the Florida Scrub-Jay.

Northern Mockingbird eggs

Northern Mockingbird chick

The Northern Mockingbird's mimicry is likely to serve as a tool for increasing the size of its repertoire and thus its ability to attract females. The mockingbird is limited to imitating short units of sound, which it repeats several times before moving on to a new sound. As a result, the mockingbird sounds much better (to a human ear) imitating some species than others. Species with repetitive songs, such as the Carolina Wren, are effectively copied, but species with long, complex songs, such as the Song Sparrow, cannot be effectively imitated by the mockingbird.

The Northern Mockingbird, in addition to being a good mimic, is also one of the loudest and most constantly vocal of birds. It often sings through the night, especially unmated males, or when the moon is full. It sings year-round except sometimes for the late-summer moulting season. Individual males have repertoires of 50 to 200 songs; females sing as well, but more quietly and less often than males. Mockingbirds usually sing the loudest in the twilight of the early morning when the sun is on the horizon.

In addition to its well-known song, the Northern Mockingbird utilizes a variety of calls to communicate specific information. As with its song, these calls are among some of the louder sounds produced by birds of its size. Mockingbirds make a harsh, raspy noise when chasing other birds out of their territory. A similar but distinct call is used when defending against predators like a hawk or falcon. Other calls include a wheezing noise, a "chuck" note, and a very piercing series of notes "high low" repeated twice.

[edit] Mockingbird in US culture

Northern Mockingbirds are common backyard visitors in the southern half of the United States and are very well habituated to humans.

• This is the state bird of Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.
• The "Mockingbird" is celebrated in a song of the same name by Barclay James Harvest, and in the title and central metaphor of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. In said novel, mockingbirds are portrayed as innocent and generous, and one of the major characters (Atticus Finch) says that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird.
• The traditional American lullaby "Hush Little Baby" has been recorded in numerous musical styles. The lyrics refer to the fact that Northern Mockingbirds were once popular as pets and begin:

Hush little baby, don't say a word,

Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird.

And if that mockingbird don't sing,

Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring.

• Other songs: Mockin' Bird Hill, Listen to the Mockingbird
• To Mock a Mockingbird is a book of logic puzzles by Raymond Smullyan based on combinatory logic.
• The mascot of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga since 1996 is an anthropomorphized mockingbird, or "Moc", named Scrappy.
• In American poet Walt Whitman's poem Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking, the second line reads "Out of the mocking-bird's throat, the musical shuttle".

• President Thomas Jefferson had a pet mockingbird named Dick.^[7][8]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Mimus polyglottos

• [1] from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
• Northern Mockingbird videos on the Internet Bird Collection
• Northern Mockingbird Information - South Dakota Birds and Birding
• Northern Mockingbird - Mimus polyglottos - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter