Mockingbirds and Thrashers: Family Mimidae

Mockingbirds and thrashers together make up the family Mimidae. These birds generally spend most of their time on the ground, where they eat almost anything they can find. They have long tail feathers and relatively long legs which help them to be fast runners. They spend so much time on the ground that they are even known to run away from predators instead of flying! They are not exactly the most exciting birds to look at, generally with blueish-gray to brown plumage. But, these birds are able to produce some of the most diverse set of sounds that birds can make.

Cover Bands

Mockingbirds in particular are famous for 'mocking' or mimicking other bird songs, as well as other sounds heard in nature. Examples of interesting sounds they are able to reproduce are: Car alarms, cell phones, machinery, dogs, frogs and cats. The more 'songs' the male mockingbird can reproduce, the more attractive he becomes to females and the better chance he has at reproducing. Some male humans exhibit this same strategy, they are called 'cover bands'.

A voice like no other... except for that other one

The melodic tones that many Passerines make is due to a highly developed voice-box called a syrinx. The syrinx contains muscles and membranes that allow these birds to produce sounds no other birds are capable of making. Two families within the Passerine order have taken this to the extreme and are able to mimic most sounds they hear in nature. These two families are the Australian Lyrebirds and the New World Mockingbirds.

Interestingly, these two families of birds are not as closely related as you might think. This is an example of convergent evolution. This occurs when two or more animal lineages evolve similar strategies for survival based on their ecological niche. In this case, while living half a world apart, the males in both families evolved the ability to reproduce a wide variety of sounds.

There are 10 genera in this family and 34 species, all of which are exclusively found in the New World. Genera include:

Genus Mimus (Typical Mockingbirds)
Genus Melanotis (Blue Mockingbirds)
Genus Dumatella (Gray Catbird)
Genus Melanoptila (Blue Catbird)
Genus Oreoscoptes  (Sage Thrasher)
Genus Toxostoma (Typical Thrashers
Genus Ramphocinclus  (White-breasted Thrasher)
Genus Allenia  (Scaly-breasted Thrasher)
Genus Margarops (Pearly-eyed Thrasher)

One of my all-time favorite songs: I miss the sweet sunny south, and the Mockingbirds.