How Many Songs Can a Mockingbird Sing? Mimicry Facts

How many songs does a mockingbird know?

Counting a mockingbird’s songs is harder than it sounds, because the bird strings together phrases in a long, constantly changing medley. Researchers record males for hours and count the distinct “song types”, the phrases a bird repeats before switching to the next.

The results vary a lot from bird to bird and region to region:

The often-quoted figure of “about 200 songs” refers to the largest repertoires; many males sing fewer. Mockingbirds also use a handful of simple calls, such as harsh “chat” notes and a “hew” alarm, which are not counted as songs.

What sounds do mockingbirds copy?

The northern mockingbird is North America’s best-known vocal mimic. Its imitations include the songs and calls of:

• Birds: northern cardinal, Carolina wren, tufted titmouse, eastern towhee, wood thrush, eastern bluebird, house sparrow, northern flicker, great crested flycatcher, American robin and the blue jay, whose own hawk imitations a mockingbird may copy in turn.
• Other animals: frogs, crickets, and sometimes dogs and cats.
• Machines: squeaky wheels, gates, whistles and car alarms.

Mockingbirds copy what they hear around them, so a bird living in a desert sings different imitations from one in a city park. Each copied phrase is usually repeated several times in a row, which is the best way to tell a mockingbird from the bird it is imitating.

How mockingbirds learn new songs

Like other songbirds, mockingbirds learn songs by listening and practicing. Unlike many species, which learn a fixed set of songs in their first year and then stop, mockingbirds appear to keep adding new material throughout their lives. Older males therefore often have bigger and more varied repertoires than one-year-olds.

Research comparing mimics suggests mockingbirds are biologically primed to learn sounds with certain acoustic qualities, such as clear, tonal notes in the range of songbird voices, which may explain why they copy some species far more than others.

Why do mockingbirds mimic other sounds?

Nobody can ask a mockingbird, but the leading explanation is sexual selection: females choose mates, and a large, varied song may advertise that a male is older, experienced and healthy. Mockingbirds sing most in the breeding season, and unmated males sing far more than paired males, often all night long, as explained in why do mockingbirds sing at night?

Copying other species may simply be an easy way to build a huge repertoire quickly. Song also helps males defend territories, and in fall both males and females sing to claim feeding areas around fruiting shrubs.

There is little evidence that mockingbirds mimic in order to fool other animals. Their imitations are often good enough to fool people, but other birds are less impressed. Florida scrub-jays, for example, ignore mockingbird copies of their calls.

When do mockingbirds sing the most?

A mockingbird’s huge repertoire is on show for much of the year. Males usually start singing in earnest in late January or February, keep going through the spring and summer breeding season, and many sing again in fall while they defend feeding territories. Winter is the quietest time.

Females sing too, but they are quieter and less frequent singers, and they tend to sing mainly when the male is away from the territory. Male song is louder and far more persistent.

Singing males like to be seen and heard. They perch on the tops of trees, roofs, chimneys and utility poles, and an unmated male sometimes launches into a “song flight”, fluttering a few meters into the air while singing and dropping back to a perch. Each song type is typically repeated several times before the bird switches to the next, so a long session can run through dozens of different phrases in a few minutes.

How mockingbirds compare with other mimics

The mockingbird belongs to the family Mimidae, the “mimic thrushes”, which also includes thrashers and catbirds.

Outside the Americas, famous mimics include Australia’s lyrebirds, the European starling and the marsh warbler of Europe, which copies birds it hears on its African wintering grounds. Parrots, mynas and some crows can copy human speech, which mockingbirds are not known for; see which birds can talk?

Mockingbird songs in culture

The bird’s skill is right there in its name. Mimus is Latin for “mimic”, and polyglottos comes from Greek words meaning “many tongues”. Its singing helped make it the state bird of Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas, as listed in US state birds, and inspired songs such as the 19th-century “Listen to the Mocking Bird”.