BirdNote; 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]

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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