To Want to Kill a Mockingbird

I've been doing a bit of research aimed at what's been keeping me up nights outside my window: The northern mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos, "many-tongued mimic" in Latin. For a long time my roomates believed the same car alarm was going off for 8 hours every night.

This mocking bird has impelled me to rise from my bed with intentions to yell and damn it to hell. I am so intrigued by its repertoire of sound bites that I compromise all steadfastness and lamely begin to plead with the bird.

"Come on bird, I'm trying to sleep. . . I mean all night, all f_ _ _ing night?"
(Sigh, frustrated man walks a circle with arms holding hips.)

Interesting to know:

Male mockingbirds are among the world's most accomplished vocal copyists. Their long musical solos borrow songs and calls from as many as 50 other bird species, and also sounds from other animals: frogs peeping, crickets chirping, the barking of dogs. Mockingbird's songs even include mechanical noises such as the squeak of a wheelbarrow, sirens, or car alarms. They mimic so well that electronic analysis of the mockingbird's "copy" shows no difference from the original.

Male mockingbirds exercise their vocal artistry most during the early spring and summer mating seasons. They sing for reasons similar to those which motivate human males to cruise city streets: to advertise their maleness, attract mates, discourage competitors, and to delineate their territories. The more extensive his vocal repertoire, the better chance a male mockingbird has of mimicking and driving away other birds, thereby gaining a larger share of habitat, and more access to the female listening audience. The songsters pick high perches - television antennas, utility poles, or tall cacti, shrubs, or trees - to better broadcast their signals. Unmated males sometimes sing all night long! (Thats our bird, the most lame and lonely mockingbird in Davis)
Male mockingbirds also defend their territories with body language: two males may confront each other at a territorial boundary and "dance," rapidly hopping sideways, flashing their black and white wings, flicking their long tails, like boxers sparring for an opening. But the pair never actually spars; the name of the game is to intimidate, not to injure.

Via SouthernNewMexico.com

Comments

[Tim]

Many thanks for the blog on Mockingbirds. I thought I was going nuts with this one bird imitating that car alarm. I saw the mocking bird on top of the tree in broad daylight and I went through my house looking for anything to kill it with and then the movie 'To Kill A Mockingbird' hit me. Incredible that more people don't know about this Mockingbird.

Many thanks again.

[ERIC JONES]

Yeah Tim no problem. I've since moved to San Francisco (at the time of the post I was living in Davis) and I thought I had rid myself of the mockingbird curse forever. Low and behold I have another friend outside my window now. Maybe my pheromones attract mockingbirds or maybe there are a lot more mockingbirds than I realize and less people that complain about it than I do.

[Rob]

I've literally going nuts w/the one in my neighborhood. It actually echoes between houses and fences. I hear it's against federal law to kill them, but after a little research (google), it _sounds_ like I've got a couple of options.

One couple in MN found that they're attracted to shiny/bright colored objects and actually caught one in a bird trap w/a simple piece of bright yellow colored fabric w/in a bird trap (they called it a livetrap.)

I'm also reading that they like fruit such as raisins, sliced apple and banana. I can't wait to get a live trap and some bait. :D

[Eric Jones]

So Rob what do you do with the birds after catching them?