Magical Mimics & Neighborhood Bullies
BIRD BRAINS: Inside the Strange Minds of Our Fine Feathered Friends (ISBN: 978-0-7267-8755-5)
by
Budd Titlow
Most everyone agrees that mockingbirds are the world’s most talented songbirds. They have been revered for their musical prowess since the United States was founded. Yet their serenading ability almost led to their demise in several colonial cities during the nineteenth century, when scoundrels regularly took mocker chicks right out of their nests and trapped adults, which they then sold as caged birds. In 1828, a sweet-singing mockingbird fetched the then-princely sum of $50.
A Northern Cardinal (Mimus polyglottos) sings his incredibly varied songs while perched high in a shrub thicket. (Photo Copyright: Budd Titlow, NATUREGRAPHS)
No fewer than four US presidents—Thomas Jefferson, Rutherford B. Hayes, Grover Cleveland, and Calvin Coolidge—kept caged mockers in the White House. Fortunately, federal legislation put a stop to this practice.
Mockingbirds have a vocal repertoire of as many as two hundred different sounds, including songs learned from other birds, non-birds, and even electrical devices like doorbells, telephones, and car alarms. The total number of songs a male sings increases with age, making him all the more attractive to females that are looking for a mate.
Through even the hottest days of the year, these indefatigable songsters keep at it from their rooftop perches. Unattached males even sing all through the night, often to the consternation of nearby humans who are trying to sleep.
Watching mockingbirds feed on lawns is always fun. They continuously hop around while popping up their wings to display their bright white patches. Many biologists believe that they do this to scare tasty insects out of their hiding places.
I believe that mockers are also the most pugnacious birds in the animal kingdom. Male birds establish their own distinct territorial kingdoms where they’re convinced they have total dominion over anything that dares to violate their personal space.
Any human who has come close to a mockingbird nest hidden deep within a landscaping shrub can attest to the result: A mockingbird will rocket down off the peak of a building roof and make a beeline for the interloper’s head, often dive-bombing and hissing until the person has moved completely out of his territory. The highly intelligent mockers even remember people who trespass in their territorial space and attack them even more aggressively if they show up again.
Mockingbirds are especially tough on domestic dogs, tree squirrels, and feral cats—they will soon have a cat batting at the air and spinning around in circles until it becomes a blurry whirling dervish of hissing fur and flying claws. I’ve even seen a mockingbird repeatedly attack an adult red fox, just barely avoiding the fox’s snapping jaws each time the bird swooped in and delivered a swift peck to the canine’s unprotected backside.
While mockers now nest and live throughout much of the United States, they will always be considered a special southern species. Ornithologist Oliver Austin writes that the mockingbird is “as symbolic of the Old South as magnolias, hominy, chitlins, and mint juleps.” It follows that mockingbirds are prominently featured in the works of a host of writers—James Fenimore Cooper, Henry David Thoreau, Harper Lee, Walt Whitman, and John Burroughs among them. Appropriately, the mocker is also the state bird of five southern states—Florida, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee.
Text excerpted from book: BIRD BRAINS: Inside the Strange Minds of Our Fine Feathered Friends, written by Budd Titlow and published by Lyons Press (an imprint of Globe Pequot Press).
Author’s bio: For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees. Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place — within nature’s beauty — before it’s too late? Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental heroes among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — COMING FULL CIRCLE: A Sweeping Saga of Conservation Stewardship Across America — provides the answers we all seek and need. Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
This Birding Life 