Why do mockingbirds, in particular Northern Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottus), mock? Yes, I know there is such a thing as Google and Wikipedia. I am asking this here because I want to see what SDMB people think.
Because they can? Not being facetious.
Mimicking has got to be a behaviour that gets them more food, more mating opportunities or safety from predators.
My WAG.
I’m sorry I couldn’t resist I googled:
Quote:
Scientists believe that mockingbirds imitate the calls and songs of other birds to discourage these birds from settling in the mockingbirds’ territory by making it appear heavily populated. The mockingbird’s vocal chords, called the syrinx, can produce a wide variety of sounds.Nov 11, 1986
I saw that but I thought maybe some birds make calls to attract other birds of the same species. In these cases wouldn’t mocking them have the opposite effect?
I don’t believe the alleged reason is true at all. That’s quite frankly nonsense.
I believe that male Mockingbirds mock in order to demonstrate to females that they have been around long enough to acquire the songs of a large number of local species. The bigger the repertoire, the longer the individual has survived, and hence its superiority to other males.
But why do they have to do it at 4:00 AM like the one outside my window this morning? It was dead quiet outside except for this one damn Mockingbird.
One year when I was growing up a mockingbird picked the cedar tree right outside my bedroom window as his performing stage. What drove me nuts was that he apparently only wanted to sing when it was dark. So as long as I was awake, with my bedroom lights on, he was silent.
But turn out the light and try to go to sleep?? The concert began!
We had a nest on our back patio with two fledgling mockingbirds. It was cute at first until they matured. And those bastards hung around, one in the front yard, one in the back. It was dueling mockery every damn night. Then we found them with their throats torn out and my kitty with a bloody maw. She got ALL the treats!
The mockingbird outside my window starts up around 2AM…been bugging the heck out of me for a couple of months now. I know that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act makes it illegal to do bad things to them, but surely there must be a loophole somewhere!
If you want to know what people think vs. the actual answer, then you got the wrong forum.
Some years ago a mockingbird set up shop just outside my bedroom window and would start in about 3am. Call my weird but I liked it and was a bit disappointed when he moved on about a month later. I do not recall him ever repeating a call the whole time.
Moderator Instructions
Omar Little, I’ve noted you a number of times for snarky posts that contribute nothing to answering the question. I’m instructing you to restrict your posts in this forum in the future to factual responses that address the question being asked, not personal remarks.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Everyone. Please note that I am seeking actual factual information on why mockingbirds mock. Some SDMB people seem to be quite knowledgeable in their own areas of expertise. Maybe what they “think” is also an “actual answer.” Sometimes Internet forums can be a useful source for information that a rudimentary Google search fails to disclose.
There have been several replies complaining about mockingbirds being an annoyance early in the morning. This brings up a couple of more questions with possible actual answers. Do mockingbirds mock more early in the morning or do we just tend to notice it more at that time? If they do mock more early in the morning, why? I have noticed several species of birds that tend to be more active early in the morning.
Most birds sing mostly at and just after dawn, so much so that birders refer to the “dawn chorus,” when many species are singing all at once. Mockingbirds are unusual in the US because they sing through much of the night, as well as part of the day. I’ve seen some references saying that it’s mostly bachelor males that sing at night, out of desperation to attract a mate.
A number of other birds are known for singing at night, the most famous among them being the European Nightingale, which takes its name from this habit.
Here in Panama male Clay-colored Thrushes sing through much of the night during the dry season. (They are closely related to the American Robin but are dull-colored.) It has been proposed that it is to show what stud-muffins they are, being able to sing interminably during the part of the year when food is in shortest supply.
Nightingales, another mimicking species, get their name because they also sing primarily at night.
One of the neatest mental images I can remember was from the beginning of one of Kroodsma’s books, where he figured in the speed of the earth’s rotation, and said the wave of birdsong spread westward around the globe at that speed. Pretty obvious when you think of it, just i had never thought of it before.
I thought the prevailing wisdom was - as Colibri says - that males with larger repertoires had better breeding success.
Every year, i can count on one of my neighbors bitching about the robins (among our most common vocalists around here) outside her window in the morning. I can’t think of many things more pleasant to hear than birdsong.
The hoards of Mockingbirds have descended upon my place. They park their little feathered butts in the trees right outside my window every night. It sounds like at least 50 birds (probably 4 or 5). My Siamese cats love it. Early every morning they are in the window trying to see them.
I love singing birds of any kind. These things are loud, though.
One has a peculiar rat-a-tat-tat sound that makes my teeth hurt.
You are probably out of luck on that. There are any number of evolutionary adaptations where the only answer we have for why they happened is “because the variation happened, and it worked.” Why don’t peacocks mock and mockingbirds have long tail feathers? Why aren’t cardinals blue and bluebirds red? Who knows? Maybe those variations never showed up, or maybe they did and females just didn’t gaf for whatever reason. Evolution and the organisms it produces is extremely complex: it can be like asking why this particular raindrop landed here and not five feet to the left. Sometimes the answer to exact reasons is ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
You have a point, but it’s enjoyable to speculate anyway. Considering that male mockingbirds have a larger repetoire, sexual selection must be part of it.
They can be really loud