Northern Mockingbird
(Mimus polyglottos)
Adult, Genders Alike
(Mimus polyglottos)
Adult, Genders Alike
Northern Mockingbirds are robin-sized birds with long tails. Their tail is gray with white edge feathers. Their belly and auriculars are white and their back, cap, and wings are grey. Their wings have white wing-bars, that when flying show greatly. Mockingbirds also possess a dark eye-line. Their eyes are yellow with black pupils, and their bill and feet are black/dark-gray. Juvenile Mockingbirds have streaking on the breast and younger juveniles have dark eyes. Occasionally adults will have dark eyes.
Mockingbirds May produce rich sputters, squeals, and warbles, along with what they're named after. They will mock a certain bird call several times in a row and repeat the process with different calls for hours, nonstop. This happens mostly in spring or summer when the birds are trying to attract mates.
A Northern Mockingbird atop a live oak stringing together other birds' songs and calls into a unique song. Notice how the Mockingbird adds their own flourish to each call, like the call of an Eastern Towhee at the end of the video in which the mockingbird adds a trill that a Towhee does not normally sing. This Mockingbird continued to sing for as long as they were heard.
Mockingbirds prefer open areas, such as fields, farmland, open forest, scrubland, roadsides, and open suburbia. They are more abundant in areas with tall snags or dying trees around.
Mockingbirds are highly protective and territorial (even somewhat boisterous) and they will attack nest intruders (or people who pass by) in fight frequently by pecking at their heads. Most male mockingbirds will sing a nonstop song made of other birds' calls to attract females from a perch high atop a tall tree (usually oak) in a semi-open area where their voice can carry. The nest is a loose cup made of twigs lined with grasses. The nest is placed in a tree or shrub.
Northern Mockingbirds also inhabit a strange behavior in which the fan out their wing in three stages to scare away insects, so they don’t have to waste time searching for them. Juveniles have been observed exhibiting this behavior more quickly.
Gray Catbirds can occasionally be confused with Mockingbirds, but note that they have a black cap and rusty undertail coverts. They also are more completely gray and lack the white belly and breast of Mockingbirds. Both are mimics and calls are not a reliable source of information. Catbirds can be found in much more wooded areas.
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmice are similar to Mockingbirds, however, they are slightly smaller and have bluer gray than mockingbirds. They also have buffy flanks, a crest, no eye-line, a black front, a stubbier bill, and a white eye-ring. Calls are not a reliable source of identification because Mockingbirds mimic their calls. Titmice can also be found in more wooded areas.
Northern Mockingbirds are common year-round in most parks, excluding Lubber Run Park and Long Branch Park. The best place to see them is the strip of land just after the cattail pond in Bluemont Park (heading to the Bon Air Rose Garden (right side)). They are also abundant on South Park Drive and The roundabout at the Culpeper Senior Center.