The Mockingbird - A Virtuoso of Variety

BirdNote^®  
The Mockingbird’s Prodigious Voice
Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote. 

[Song of Northern Mockingbird from ML 94375]

Some birds have a lot to say. But few surpass the Northern Mockingbird. [Song of Northern Mockingbird from ML 118628] 

Within its range in the US, which is most of the country except the northern West and Midwest, you’ll recognize the mockingbird’s song instantly. [Repeat some of ML 94375] 

A very distinctive song, but perhaps not a thing of beauty. But while the mockingbird may not sing beautifully, it’s a virtuoso of variety, persistence, and mimicry. Mockingbirds sing all year — in the breeding season to attract mates, the rest of the year to claim feeding territories. In spring, a male mockingbird sings all day, hundreds of variations — then sings all through the night. [Song of the Northern Mockingbird from ML 94374]

The aptly named mockingbird is also an uncanny mimic. A mockingbird might imitate, in succession, birds as different as a bobwhite quail, a chat, a sandpiper — even a cardinal — then cap it off with meow of a cat and a few phrases of car alarm. [Selection with mimics]

For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.  [Song of the Northern Mockingbird]

###

Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds (ML) at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Songs of the Mockingbird [94375] and [94374] and [85197] recorded by W. Hershberger; and [118628] recorded by G.A. Keller.
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson

© 2016 Tune In to Nature.org  March 2014/2018   Narrator: Michael Stein

ID#       NOMO-02b-2014-03-21 NOMO-02b