Sorry, no pics because if I could find a pic, I’d know what to call him.
I’ve been calling him a “mockingbird” because he sits in the tree and runs through a progression of clicks, chirps, songs, clucks and everything else.
So, I just went to find a picture of “mockingbirds” and he doesn’t look like any of them.
What he looks like is blackish/greenish metallic feathers, kind of like an oil slick with a yellow (IIRC) longish beak. He has specks on his wings, and his “hair” is kind of “spikey” but not as spikey as a kingfisher.
He’s not as big as a pigeon, but he’s a good sized bird.
He eats off the ground, maybe insects, but maybe seeds.
I think the females are duller, smaller, and brownish but they just might be a sparrow whose company he enjoys.
Yeah, that sounds like a starling-- they have impressive wacky vocal repertoires. Other people hate them, but they amuse me. A mockingbird will sound more like one of the 1990s car alarms: woop woop woop erk erk erk pfweeew pfweeew pfweeew Arnk Arnk Arnk woop woop woop ad nauseum. Starlings sound less . . . standard.
Starlings, like Mockingbirds, are great mimics. They copy the songs of other birds - it can be very interesting trying to identifying exactly what they are mimicking. They can even be taught to mimic human speech (they are related to Myna birds). You can hear some talking Starlings here.
