Northern Mockingbird: The Singing Bully of the Backyard

Link to this photo on my Flickr profile.

This morning

two mockingbirds

in the green field

were spinning and tossing

the white ribbons

of their songs

- Mary Oliver¹

If you have a backyard and you live in Nothern or Central America, you probably have at least one Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) living nearby. They are the second most popular state bird in the United States, a symbol of Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas, and Alaska.² They are visually easy to identify; they have long tails they flick about and large white spots on the backs of their wings. 

What's in a name?

However, their family name, Mimidae, and even their genus and species name hints at a very different way to identify Mockingbirds.³ Mimus ployglottus translates to "many-tongued mimic" in English. Listen for a long string of unrelated songs all woven together that resembles the songs of other birds in your neighborhood. If you have never heard one before, or you're not sure if you have, I recommend listening to a sound clip on this page, from Cornell University's Ornithology Lab.

Link to this photo on my Flickr profile.

Not only are they song thieves, they don't stop at just one or two. What's fascinating is they continue adding to their repertoire over their entire lives. It's not just the males either, the ladies also sing and just as well, though quieter and usually when the male is away.⁴ Studies have shown that they can learn up to 200 songs over their 8-year lifespan (20 in captivity).^{5, 6, 7} This can, arguably, get pretty annoying if they are right outside your window as males will sing in the evening as well as during the day.

Link to this photo on my Flickr profile.

Fight, not Flight 

Aside from song theft, they are also guilty of being the playground bully! These featherweight fighters will push around anything in their territory; larger birds, dogs, cats, even humans. I have watched many a Mockingbird chase Blue Jays, Grackles, Crows and dive bomb a stray cat in my parents' yard when I was young! According to a study in 1988, there is a difference in aggression between the sexes when nest guarding against humans. Males were more aggressive than females; striking more often, following the "intruder" further out to the edge of their territory and vocalizing more frequently.⁸



They Never Forget a Face

They don't just attack you once, but these little brutes remember individual human faces! If you mess with a Mockingbird, you will receive their full wrath - forever. Not something I'd want to deal with. Dr. Douglas Levey and his team of researchers published a study in 2009 showing that they can distinguish between individual human faces after only 60 seconds of exposure and with that attacked those who "offended" the birds with swoops and head grazes.⁹ Anecdotally, I met a woman while taking the photos in this blog post and she claimed she rescued an injured Mockingbird a few years ago and nursed it back to health. That bird remained near her home for several years, pecking at her window or landing near her when she went outside in her yard. So maybe they remember the good as well as the bad!

The President's Bird

Mockingbirds are fascinating birds with a ton of character! I've mentioned a lot of the more suspect aspects of our pushy little friends, but they also have a lot of great qualities. Mockingbirds mate for life and are excellent parents. As mentioned earlier, their aggression is focused around protecting their young. One pair can have up to three broods, or groups of chicks, per year. They're so awesome, the third President of the United States of America, Thomas Jefferson, had several pet Mockingbirds, one named Dick. Dick is the only one he mentions by name in his diary. Margaret Bayard Smith, a friend of Jefferson's, wrote that Dick’s cage was “suspended among the roses and geraniums in the window recesses of the presidential cabinet” and that President Jefferson treated Dick “with peculiar fondness, not only for its melodious powers but for its uncommon intelligence and affectionate disposition.”¹⁰

With a ringing endorsement from the President, maybe we should all take a second look at the Mockingbirds in our yards. Our noisy and assertive neighbors!

References:

1. Mary Oliver. Mockingbirds. The Atlantic. Link to the web page.
2. National Wildlife Federation. Northern Mockingbird. Link to the web page.

3. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds. Mockingbirds, Thrashers, and Allies. Link to the web page.

4. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds. Northern Mockingbird, Life History. Link to the web page.

5. Kim C. Derrickson. 1987. Yearly and Situational Changes in the Estimate of Repertoire Size in Northern Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos). The Auk. 104, 198-207. Link to the Journal Article.

6. USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. 2016. Longevity Records of North American Birds. Link to the Journal Article.

7. American Expedition. Northern Mockingbird Information, Photos, and Facts. Link to the web page.
8. Randall Breitwisch. 1988. Sex differences in defence of eggs and nestlings by northern mockingbirds, Mimus polyglottos. Animal Behavior. 36, 62-72. Link to the Journal Article.
9. Douglas J. Levey et. al. 2009. Urban mockingbirds quickly learn to identify individual humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106, 8959-8962. Link to the Journal Article.
10. Presidential Pet Museum. Thomas Jefferson’s Mockingbird Named Dick. Link to the web page.