Mockingbirds are a group of New World passerine birds from the family . They are best known for the habit of some species Mimicry the songs of other birds and the sounds of insects and amphibians,
The only mockingbird commonly found in North America is the northern mockingbird. 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 became the first state ever to choose a state bird. Since then, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee have also adopted the northern mockingbird as their official state bird.
Taxonomy
There are about 17
species in two
genus, 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 lineage, as
Mimus and
Melanotis are not each other's closest relatives; instead,
Melanotis appears to be more closely related to the
catbird, while the closest living relatives of
Mimus appear to be
, 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)." The Auk 118(1): 35–55. DOI:10.1642/0004-8038(2001)1180035:MSABOA2.0.CO;2][Barber, 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, Mimus triurus
-
Northern mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos
-
Socorro mockingbird, Mimus graysoni
-
Tropical mockingbird, Mimus gilvus
-
Chalk-browed mockingbird, Mimus saturninus
Formerly
Nesomimus (endemic to the
Galapagos):
-
Hood mockingbird, 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 in September to October 1835, the naturalist
Charles Darwin noticed that the mockingbirds
Mimus thenca differed from island to island, and were closely allied in appearance to mockingbirds on the
mainland. Nearly a year later when writing up his notes on the return voyage he speculated that this,
[ Mockingbirds, finches: origins of Darwin's theories] together with what he had been told about Galápagos tortoises, 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 and hence
evolution.
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