Northern Mockingbird

Mimus polyglottos

Family Mimidae (Mockingbirds and Thrashers )

Northern Mockingbird photographed by lancerad2000, Flickr
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The poor much-maligned mockingbird is one of my favorite birds. Sometimes they’re irritating and aggressive, driving off other birds, but they’re also fantastic survivors and amazingly well adapted. I’ve been to very few places in North America where there were not mockingbirds. In fact I generally forget to even record that I saw them because they’re literally everywhere.

I also respect them because they won’t hesitate to defend their territory against pretty much everything. I’ve seen mockingbirds go after cats, dogs, even people.

According to whatbird, a group of mockingbirds has many collective nouns, including an “echo”, “exactness”, “plagiary”, and a “ridicule” of mockingbirds. The strange thing is I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen a group of mockingbirds, they’re very solitary creatures.

Seen at