Why do Mockingbirds Mock?

[Capn_Carl]

I’ve heard that the most attractive males can attract a mate by singing during the day. The ‘loser’ males have to sing day and night.

[Chronos]

Sexual selection, in particular, can look very random, because it’s a positive feedback effect. Once it’s established, females prefer males with the extreme trait for no other reason than because females prefer them. If there were a freak peahen who preferred males with drab tails, then all of her sons would be less attractive than average, and so she’d have fewer grandchicks and further descendants. So just as the males who have more ornate tails are favored, so are the females who are attracted to ornate tails.

[harmonicamoon]

When mockingbirds aren’t mocking, do they have any original songs?

[Darren_Garrison]

@zimaane

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.

Yeah, but “sexual selection” is a catch-all term. Mockingbirds become iPod Shuffles, peacocks get long tail feathers, cardinals get red, bluebirds get blue, bowerbirds are hoarders, sage grouses stage raves, etc. Why the females of a given species get all hot and bothered for one excess and not another (could a peacock get all the chicks if he knew a hundred songs instead of screeching like a demon from hell? would a bowerbird with long feathers be able to dump his junk?) is back to ¯_(ツ)_/¯.

[Sdowiat]

Once when I was spending the outside unloading spreading mulch I kept hearing my phone go off, both the ring and the chime indicating a new text or email… but there was never anything there. Finally… I noticed the bird up on top of my roof WHILE he was making the noise. He had it down pat!

[Chronos]

I’ve also heard of an outdoor performance of Peter and the Wolf (possibly by the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC) where all the flute parts were played twice, once by the floutist, and immediately afterwards by a mockingbird. Which is especially ironic, given that the flute parts in that piece represent birdsong.

[icantdraw]

Why don’t Hedgehogs just share the hedge?

[Maus_Magill]

@StarvingButStrong

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!

@blondebear

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!

@DesertDog

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.

@Colibri

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.

My experience with a mockingbird.

[Gymnopithys]

@Colibri

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.

Best answer so far, but birds that imitate do it unconsciously, and they are unconscious of its effect.

Don’t forget the Lyrebird, champion imitator.

(presented by David Attenborough)

[scabpicker]

@Colibri

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.

Yep, I firmly believe this is the reason, they’re trying to get laid. Most of the time that the mockingbirds I’ve seen are imitating other birds, it’s combined with other behavior. They generally go to the highest perch available, and have a jumping somersault display that they combine with their calls. Looks like a mating display to me.

And yes, harmonicamoon they’ve got their own alarm and aggression calls. I’ve heard them both recently when they see and are subsequently chasing off the crows. There’s also a series of calls that I’ve heard them use between mates.

I don’t know if it’s the losers that have to sing at night, but they are the ones that are the most persistent about it. So, that theory is intriguing to me, Capn Carl There was one who’d go all night on top of a telephone pole near my job when I worked overnights. When he was still going near daybreak, I’d yell “You can give up, you’re not getting laid today” when I’d finished my last cigarette of the night.