Don’t Mock Me, Birdie… But Sing for Me Anytime.

I wasn’t so surprised to see a Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) on the vegetation in my yard, but I was amazed that it allowed me to move all around him without flying off.  But instead, the gray-brown bird with the paler breast and belly and two white wingbars on each wing stood his ground.  And he sang.

“Wow,” I said to Mom.  “His dull coloring doesn’t match his more colorful personality.” 

And that is one of the identifiers of a Northern Mockingbird.  The bird with the small head and short, rounded, broad wings and the long, twitchy tail is known to confuse you with the sounds of 10 or 15 songbirds in your yard.  They are famous (or infamous) for harassing other birds that intrude on their territory by flying around them or dancing around them with legs extended.  And they sing endlessly, even sometimes at night.

But no worries.  “Birdie, you can sing for me anytime.”  Just don’t flaunt those bright white wing patches at me.