Mockingbird Mortality?
 

Okay, I am a night owl sometimes. Just stepped out on porch and listened to our Mockingbird. Do they ever shut up? I had the thought recently that they must die of starvation or exhaustion..........Because they don't shut up long enough to eat or sleep.
Sorry! Just my crazy thought process! Love listening to them unless they choose to perch on window ledge at night!

agree, wholeheartedly. the ones outside my room are still going at three in the morning.
you would think that with all the feral cats around here the birds would find another home. no such luck. i think they keep the cats awake too. heh heh

mockingbirds will chase cats.
in fact ... next to the constant chatter ... i think chasing other animals is their next favorite activity.

i watched one chase a squirrel along the top of the fence last week.
he nailed that poor squirrel square in the butt with his beak. LOL LOL LOL

When I am down south I love hearing them sing at night. So pretty.

Unlike up north, where you might get a Whippoorwill perched outside your BR window at dawn and your thoughts turn to bird murder.....

I don't think we have mockingbirds here. We use to have whippoorwills, years ago. I seldom hear them. We have all kinds of birds and they get real noisy right before daybreak. I enjoy hearing the birds.

Those poor mockingbirds that you hear at night are single guys trying to get laid, well find a mate. It is the male's duty to prove that he will be a good protector and keep the nest safe so he mimics other kinds of birds to make them think that there is already one of that breed in the area and they will move on. The ones that chase larger birds, squirrels, etc. are on the job protesting the nest.

He, he. I awake to a whole apartment house of bird chatter every morning. Not singing, chatter. I have a huge blue spruce tree in my yard and they all chat and chat and chat. Heaven knows what about. Then the singing. Maybe they only do that to get me out of bed!

The one that always makes me laugh is early (and I mean EARLY) in the morning when a woodpecker is rapping out his message on a metal drain gutter. It resonates throughout the neighborhood. I live in a condo consisting of multiple 3 story buildings and I'm sure the lucky person with that drain pipe just outside their window considers bird murder when it happens. I'm an early riser and usually hear this when I'm walking my dog so I just chuckle.

we have mockingbirds and chuck wills' widow (sounds similar to a whipperwill, except there's a "click" sound in the beginning of their call)...mocking birds start EARLY in the morning and go all day.....chuck wills' widow starts at dusk and goes all night!! Ol' chuck likes to circle our house (we live in the woods) and if it's window open time you can't get away from him!!

The mockingbirds have been keeping DH awake during the night lately too - such a noisy bunch, and they totally scold me when I'm working in the shade gardens under "their" trees. (I love talking back to them and they get highly indignant)

We have had two robins nests in the yard that were abandoned this year - weird! One was in the holly tree at a very low height - like 2 feet. I went out to check it one day and the robin and her three eggs were gone :( (I suspect snakes or coons or cats on that one) Another one in the pyracantha higher up was abandoned with two eggs in it - don't know if they didn't like the lawn mowing and trimming that was starting to happen , or what! I felt sad about that one too - I didn't know about it until it was too late.

I had to stop while driving yesterday, because a mockingbird was in the middle of the road, fighting with a very large crow. Craziest thing I have ever seen. The used to attack me when I had the nerve to pass by "their" tree to hang out my wash.

We don't have mockiingbirds, but we do have crows, and I wish I could commit crowslaughter, but they're too smart to fall for human skulldggery! They scream at me when I walk to the mailbox and whenever I go outside. I yell back, "It's my yard! And I was here before you were!" It's true. They didn't move into our trees until about 15 years ago when our stupid neighbors (they really were on the dim side) put meat scraps in their compost pile. We tried to make them understand that meat should not go into compost, but they wouldn't listen. It didn' take long for the crows to arrive, and they never left, even after Mr. and Mrs. Dimwit moved away.

Oh, yeah, those mockers are territorial. We have one that chases the crows away. Good for it! Once I heard the "hit" as the mockingbird hit the crow in the backside. OW! I have also seen them chase HAWKS! Gutsy little things. Their song can be beautiful or ugly. Eight months pregnant and one took up residence. The thing had an ugly noise...and knew when I got up in the AM. It would not stop...even with the drapes closed and tiptoeing...it knew when I got up! My sympathies to those of you who have to listen to the ugly noise instead of the pretty song.
To scare a crow away, clap your hands...they don't like the sharp sound.

I love to hear them. Long ago , one would sit on top of a city light pole near my home and sing well into the long hot summer nights, serenading the neighborhood to sleep and welcoming our morning. One of the most joyful sounds a city can offer.
I do miss hearing them.
peace

You think Mockingbirds are loud, wait till you hear a Grackle. We have never had them in this town until this year. Wish they would go back home. They are so loud my next door neighbor goes out with a small BB gun every night before he goes to bed to try to chase them off. But they just come right back.

We don't have mockingbirds here, but the starlings are awful. They like to roost in the 2nd floor dryer vents of our neighbors, and they poop everywhere. As you can imagine, the dryer vent nest is a horrible fire hazard, and most homeowners have taken steps and installed cages over the vents. There are a few who don't seem to care, though, and I worry about what will eventually happen.

When I worked the 11-7 shift, a co-worker and I would break in the atrium and would count the different calls mockingbirds make, we got up to twenty different calls one morning...I love listening to them...

Yes, that's true. They drive my DH crazy.

I don't think we have mockingbirds, we do have crows, which we have learned to appreciate since we got our chickens since they will warn when a hawk is in the area and even chase it.

Personally I would rather listen to a mockingbird all night than traffic, sirens, dogs or my neighbors extremely loud Harley at 5am! LOL

I put up nest platforms under the eaves for the phoebes, nice and cozy. They love them. Well this year I am painting the house. They still have babies in the nest and won't feed them when I am on that side. So I paint a little, then go to the other side to paint, then come back and paint a little more. I think they are almost ready to leave, I can see their little beaks and they look almost grown.

If they are so upset by PEOPLE why the heck do they want to nest around my house?? There is a BIG abandoned barn just down the street.

I do love all birds, even the crows around here sound neat, almost like people.

My sister has 2 mockingbird that each have a "cat" to chase. One lives in a tree and chases the Momma cat and the other one lives in a shed and it chases the other cat....if one chases the "wrong" cat, the other mockingbird will chase the other mockingbird away. Reminds me of "he is my brother and I can hit him, but you can't hit him because he's my brother", lol!

Had to laugh at this one! I've had that thought, lol.

I haven't heard a whipporwill in years, and I miss them! I prefer the birds at any hour to my several foolish neighbors with their ATV's. jetskis, motorcycles, and broken muffler trucks. Not so fond of the crows since seeing them raid
robin and catbird nests, making off with the newly hatched chicks dangling from their beaks! I tried to rescue a fledgling robin from the mob (called a "murder of crows") but I was too late.