We have two different male mockingbirds with very good repertoires on the farm this year. They both do close to 40 different sounds, mostly other birds. One of them does a guinea hens buckwheat call. The other one makes some sort of electronic alarm call.

The coolest sound I ever heard a mockingbird make was a coyote howl. I saw and heard it in South East, Ohio in the Symmes Creek portion of Wayne National Forest. It made the coyote call about every 8 minutes in between its more normal bird calls.

What's the strangest sound you have heard a mockingbird sing?

Keith

I watched one sound off like a Cardinal last Sunday.

That's cool.

We don't have many around here. Car alarm, cell phone, hawk screech. They are pretty amazing and wouldn't believe all their calls other than seeing them do it.

Have not had one at my place since my firethorn died, thanks for posting, brought back good memories.

As a kid my mother played the piano and one would come a sit on the windowsill (old house with a 2 foot wide sill and the window was a dormer type, so they were on the same level) and try to copy her, she always tired to do something that the bird did not do already. I remember seeing it and thinking of the WW I german airplane paint job with the diagonal stripe on the wing......jk

We have I think 3 different male mockingbirds that sing here now. I have one that's doing a car alarm and bottle rocket whistle in it's long repertoire. I have another one that does both the red tail hawks long call and a cooper hawks whine and chatter call in it's repertoire.

Do you guys have any mockingbirds in your area with interesting calls?

Keith

I've got one that says, "Catch is cool, Catch is cool, Catch is cool". Could be the heat though.

Jeff, if you kept saying that in it's presence, I have little doubt it would start saying it too. Of course, your neighbors might look at you strangely when you're saying that over and over out in your yard.

Keith

Brilliant!

I think I read somewhere the other day that they are part of the swollow family.

My parents had one at their house. The only thing extraordinary about the call was that it would only sing after 1am. My dads said he’d have to go outside and scare it out of the bush it liked to hang out in because it was right by their bedroom window!

I can't imagine where you got that false information. They belong to the family Mimidae along with Gray Catbirds and 8 species of North American Thrashers. Oh, and its swallow not swollow family..

Jarhead