Monday, December 27, 2010

Bird Photography Weekly #122

One bird that can almost always be found around the Houston area is the proud Mockingbird, the state bird of Texas. Mockingbirds inhabit parks, suburban neighborhoods, and can even be found around downtown — anywhere that has trees or even shrubs, you can probably hear a mockingbird singing its pilfered songs. We even have one that serenades us year round from the trees in the parking lot of our office building.

Northern Mockingbird - 4/9/2010
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)

Mockingbirds reportedly form enduring and faithful partnerships with a single mate and are known to defend their nests and their young with surprising vigor, chasing away cats, dogs, hawks and other larger birds, and even humans who wander a little too close for comfort.

Northern Mockingbird - 9/8/2008

Each mockingbird seems to have a different repertoire, as they learn and mimic the songs of other birds they encounter or that live around them. And as they continue to learn new songs throughout their life, some individuals may have dozens of calls to choose from. Mockingbirds' mimicries are often almost indistinguishable from the original. But if you hear a certain bird song three or more times in quick repetition and then a totally different sound repeated from the same spot, you can be pretty sure you are listening to a mockingbird's medley.

Northern Mockingbird - 1/20/2009


As always, you can click on any image to see a larger version. Also, check out Bird Photography Weekly #122 for more great bird photos from around the world.

Bird Photography Weekly

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We have a lot of mockingbirds around here too. Sometimes they are noisy little boogers!

Happy New Year from Southern California. No snow here but a lot of rain storms and mud slides!

I hope you and your family had a Wonderful Christmas Celebration.

God Bless You, ~Ron

Neil said...

Great photos.

Lana Gramlich said...

Nice shot. Love the bird's stance. ;)