Mockingbirds are a group of

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

birds from the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Mimid __NOTOC__ The mimids are the New World family of passerine birds, Mimidae, that includes thrashers, mockingbirds, tremblers, and the New World catbirds. As their name (Latin for "mimic") suggests, these birds are notable for their vocalizatio ...

ae. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of other birds and the sounds of insects and amphibians, often loudly and in rapid succession and for being extremely

territorial A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, belonging or connected to a particular country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually a geographic area which has not been granted the powers of self-government, ...

when raising hatchlings. Studies have shown the ability of some species to identify individual humans and treat them differently based on learned threat assessments. The only mockingbird commonly found in North America is the

northern mockingbird The northern mockingbird (''Mimus polyglottos'') is a mockingbird commonly found in North America, of the family Mimidae. The species is also found in some parts of the Caribbean, as well as on the Hawaiian Islands. It is typically a permanent B ...

. Mockingbirds are known for singing late at night, even past midnight. They are opportunistic omnivores, feeding on insects, fruits, seeds, and occasional greens. The northern mockingbird is the state bird of five states in the United States, a trend that was started in 1920, when the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs proposed the idea. In January 1927, Governor Dan Moody approved this, and

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

became the first state ever to choose a state bird. Since then,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

, and

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

have also adopted the northern mockingbird as their official state bird.

Taxonomy

There are about 17

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

in two

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

, although three species of mockingbird from the Galápagos Islands were formerly separated into a third genus, '' Nesomimus''. The mockingbirds do not appear to form a

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

lineage, as ''

Mimus ''Mimus'' is a genus of passerine birds in the family (biology), family Mimidae. It contains the typical mockingbirds. Taxonomy The genus ''Mimus'' was introduced in 1826 by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie to contain a single species, ''Turd ...

'' and '' Melanotis'' are not each other's closest relatives; instead, '' Melanotis'' appears to be more closely related to the catbirds, while the closest living relatives of ''

'' appear to be thrashers, such as the sage thrasher.Hunt, Jeffrey S.; Bermingham, Eldredge; & Ricklefs, Robert E. (2001):
Molecular systematics and biogeography of Antillean thrashers, tremblers, and mockingbirds (Aves: Mimidae)
" ''

Auk Auks or alcids are birds of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the Uria, murres, guillemots, Aethia, auklets, puffins, and Brachyramphus, murrelets. The family contains 25 extant or recently extinct speci ...

'' 118(1): 35–55. DOI:10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118 035:MSABOA.0.CO;2Barber, Brian R.; Martínez-Gómez, Juan E. & Peterson, A. Townsend (2004) "Systematic position of the Socorro mockingbird ''Mimodes graysoni''." '' J. Avian Biol.'' 35: 195–198.

Species in taxonomic order

''Mimus'': * Brown-backed mockingbird, ''Mimus dorsalis'' * Bahama mockingbird, ''Mimus gundlachii'' * Long-tailed mockingbird, ''Mimus longicaudatus'' * Patagonian mockingbird, ''Mimus patagonicus'' * Chilean mockingbird, ''Mimus thenca'' *

White-banded mockingbird The white-banded mockingbird (''Mimus triurus'') is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. ...

, ''Mimus triurus'' *

Northern mockingbird The northern mockingbird (''Mimus polyglottos'') is a mockingbird commonly found in North America, of the family Mimidae. The species is also found in some parts of the Caribbean, as well as on the Hawaiian Islands. It is typically a permanent B ...

, ''Mimus polyglottos'' * Socorro mockingbird, ''Mimus graysoni'' * Tropical mockingbird, ''Mimus gilvus'' * Chalk-browed mockingbird, ''Mimus saturninus'' Formerly ''Nesomimus'' (endemic to the Galapagos): *

Hood mockingbird Hood may refer to: Covering Apparel * Hood (headgear), type of head covering ** Article of academic dress ** Bondage hood, sex toy * Hoodie, hooded sweatshirt Anatomy * Clitoral hood, a hood of skin surrounding the clitoris * Hood, a flap of ...

, ''Mimus macdonaldi'' * Galápagos mockingbird, ''Mimus parvulus'' * Floreana mockingbird or Charles mockingbird, ''Mimus trifasciatus'' * San Cristóbal mockingbird, ''Mimus melanotis'' ''Melanotis'': * Blue mockingbird, ''Melanotis caerulescens'' * Blue-and-white mockingbird, ''Melanotis hypoleucus''

Charles Darwin

When the survey voyage of HMS ''Beagle'' visited the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands () are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the equator, west of the mainland of South America. They form the Galápagos Province of the Republic of Ecuador, with a population of sli ...

in September to October 1835, the naturalist

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

noticed that the mockingbirds ''Mimus thenca'' differed from island to island, and were closely allied in appearance to mockingbirds on the

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

n mainland. Nearly a year later when writing up his notes on the return voyage he speculated that this, together with what he had been told about

Galápagos tortoise The Galápagos tortoise or Galápagos giant tortoise (''Chelonoidis niger'') is a very large species of tortoise in the genus ''Chelonoidis'' (which also contains three smaller species from mainland South America). The species comprises 15 subsp ...

s, could undermine the doctrine of stability of species. This was his first recorded expression of doubts about species being immutable, which led to his being convinced about the

transmutation of species The Transmutation of species and transformism are 18th and early 19th-century ideas about the change of one species into another that preceded Charles Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection. The French ''Transformisme'' was a ter ...

and hence

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

References

External links

Mockingbird videos, photographs and sound recordings
on the Internet Bird Collection
Mockingbird singing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mockingbird Bird common names Mimidae Symbols of Mississippi