Northern Mockingbird (Mimus
polyglottos)
Family: Mimidae
Status: No special status.
Size: 10" long
Diet: Omnivore.
Characteristics: Intelligent, territorial.
Area: United States, Mexico, West Indies.
Offspring: Three to six bluish-green eggs speckled with brown.
Trivia:
· Northern Mockingbird is the state bird of Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.
· It is the most widely known songbird in North America.
·
Officially known as the Northern Mockingbird, everyone,
birders included, calls it the Mockingbird.
· The mockingbird has been made famous in several songs, including “Listen to the Mockingbird” and “Mockingbird” as well as the book and film “To Kill A Mockingbird” (the title refers to the fact that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird because it harms no one and produces such a beautiful song).
Northern mockingbirds are extremely beloved birds, mainly because of their extraordinary vocal abilities. They have a wide variety of songs and in addition, can mock or mimic almost any other song or sound, including the barking of a dog. In fact, sound spectrographs have shown their renditions of other birds’ song to be exact duplicates, and a mockingbird in captivity was found to reproduce 39 bird songs, 50 birdcalls as well as frog and cricket sounds. They eat insect, snails, fruits and berries. Both males and females have the same colouring—gray with white undersides and white wing patches that are visible only during flight. Some mockingbirds living in the north will migrate south for the winter.
Mockingbirds can sometimes be seen as far north as southern Canada, but most live in the United States and Mexico. They live in open grassy areas that have thick shrubs in which they hide their nests. Mockingbirds protect their nests fiercely, aggressively swooping down on cats or other predators who approach their territories. They often seen sitting on a post, surveying their territory. The reason for that is to keep other birds away from its food, such as its favourite berry bushes and if another bird approaches, the mockingbird will chase the intruder away.
Mockingbirds mate for life and are extremely faithful to their mates. The males sing a mating song to win over a female. Once they become a couple and are expecting young, the male will build a cup shaped nest of twigs, and the female will line it with soft grass, leaves, cotton and paper, before laying three to six eggs. The female then sits on the eggs for approximately 12 days before they hatch. Both parents bring food to the young, who will be able to leave the nest two weeks later. Mockingbirds are loving parents, and become distressed if any of their young fall out of the nest. In one case, people placed a fallen mockingbird in an Easter basket and hung the basket from a branch near the original nest. The relieved parents happily fed and took care of their youngster from there, until he was old enough to fly. The widespread belief that birds won’t touch their babies if human hands have handled them is false.