Northern Mockingbird spreads its wings.

Here is yet another delightful experience of mine with a mockingbird as the key player…

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 in the song, the king, the queen and the maid, I heard the sweet twittering of a mockingbird that perched 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, we 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 it 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.

Also, with the advent of the mockingjays of Hunger Games fame, this little bird should become all that much more popular!

(The photograph at the right, made me think of a beautiful girl, dressed in a kimono, dancing. Or perhaps, the little mockingbird is conducting a symphony.)

Enjoy!

Photo by: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Manjithkaini

References:

Mockingbird:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mockingbird

Northern Mockingbird (Includes example of its song.):   http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_mockingbird/sounds/ac

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