“Sweet Warbler”
The other day, I stood in the neighborhood playground singing the nursery rhyme, “Sing a Song of Six Pence” with the two-year-old boy that I have charge of from 9 to 2, M-F. As we repeated the words and added silly hand gestures to impersonate the black birds, king, queen and the maid, I heard the sweet twittering of a mockingbird that sat in a birch tree just beyond the fence that surrounds the play area. It occurred to me that the little avian was trying its best to sing along with us. So, I started another round of the song and sure enough, the little gray bird with white on its underside and long black tail feathers, tweeted several different bird calls that seemed to indicate that is was doing its best to mimic into bird song the notes we sang so lustily.
In my mind, this delightful incident went to solidify the amazing character of these little song birds. Their feathers may not possess lush, magnificent colors, but their intelligence and ability to mimic what they hear goes a long way toward their popularity poll.
Stylized: “Mockingbird Eggs in Nest”
Enjoy!
References:
Mockingbird: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mockingbird
Northern Mockingbird (Includes example of its song.): http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_mockingbird/sounds/ac
Related articles
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- Bird-related library resources at GFU (blogs.georgefox.edu)
- Northern Mockingbird Editing (bobzeller.wordpress.com)
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Avian Attitude
