Northern mockingbird
Mimus polyglottos
— Where the name comes from
Mimus is the Latin for a comic actor who imitates; polyglottos is Greek for “of many tongues”. Together they make “the polyglot comedian”, which is as exact a description of this bird as one could give. It is the state bird of five American states and the subject of a title everyone knows — To Kill a Mockingbird.
— Facts
- Group
- Birds · Aves
- Order
- Passerines
- Habitat
- Gardens, hedges, car parks, open country with bushes
- Range
- The United States, Mexico and the Caribbean
- Size
- 21–26 cm, wingspan 31–38 cm, 40–58 g
- Diet
- Insects, berries, fruit
- Lifespan
- 8 years in the wild
— Characteristics
- 01
It repeats each imitated phrase three or four times in a row.
- 02
It goes on learning new sounds throughout its life.
- 03
It defends the nest by dive-bombing cats, dogs and people.
— What sets it apart
It tells people apart. In an experiment run on an American campus, one student approached the same nest for four days running and each time the mockingbirds attacked sooner and more insistently; on the fifth day a different person came, dressed the same, and the birds reacted as they would to any stranger. A two-gram brain, among the thousands of students crossing that lawn, was holding on to one face.
