Momma’s gonna buy you a mockingbird. And if that mockingbird don’t sing… *
Northern mockingbird having breakfast in our backyard this week
Whoa, wait a minute, a mockingbird that doesn’t sing?? Singing is what mockingbirds do!! They can not only imitate almost every bird in the neighborhood, but all sorts of other non-bird sounds. Mockingbirds have been known to imitate machinery, human music, car alarms, crickets, and up to 12 species of frogs and toads. It’s scientific name is Mimus polyglottos meaning multi-lingual mimic. It’s a male’s repertoire of over a hundred songs and his own lovely song that wins him the heart of a female mockingbird in the spring.
There are 17 species of mockingbird in the world, but only one, the northern mockingbird, in North America where they are found nearly everywhere. In the 18th and 19th centuries, mockingbirds were popular pets leading to so much trapping that they became threatened in eastern regions. Thomas Jefferson’s pet mockingbird named Dick would sit on his shoulder and sing along when he played the violin. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 put an end to capturing and selling mockingbirds (along with many other species) and allowed them to flourish throughout the country. So it’s not only against the law, but it’s also a sin to kill a mockingbird. According to Ms. Maudie, "Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
In recent times, mockingbirds have shown a preference for urban environments, especially in the South, where they can be heard both day and night singing their hearts out from wires and lamp posts. They are the state bird in five states. A mockingbird was the first bird I saw on our first birding walk of last spring, and it looks like one of the last of the early fall unless this one hangs around for the winter.
When the sun in the morning peeps over the hill
And kisses the roses 'round my window sill
Then my heart fills with gladness when I hear the trill
Of the birds in the treetops on Mockingbird Hill
Tra la la, tweedle dee dee dee
It gives me a thrill
To wake up in the morning
To the mockingbird's trill
Tra la la tweedle dee dee dee
There's peace and good will
You're welcome as the flowers On Mockingbird Hill
Listen to Mockingbird Hill sung by Burl Ives
And here’s YoYo Ma and Bobby McFerrin doing Hush Little Baby.