April 17 2010 - Mimics

When I was young, my family went to Florida most winters for a vacation.  We would stay somewhere in St. Petersburg, near the beach.  A regular attraction at that time was Busch Bavarian Gardens in Tampa.  Today this is a major attraction with a lot of rides, shows, and animals, but back then there were trees, birds, and a beer factory.  After a tour of the factory the adults received free beer.  When I was about 7 or 8 I was wandering around looking at the trees and birds, and a bird said to me "Hello little girl".  I was just completely freaked out.  First I thought that someone was hiding in the bushes and trying to frighten me with their very strange voice.  Then I realized it really was the bird talking, and I had NO IDEA that birds could do that.  Of course it was a myna bird, which I found out after finding the rest of my family in a total panic about the talking bird.

I was thinking about this experience in the past week because 2 of our typical mimic birds gave us some really great shows.  Of course most people know about the mockingbird and its wonderful repertoire of great sounds. We have a pair of mockingbirds that are hanging near our house daily and singing some pretty great songs.  But one evening at sunset recently we had a mockingbird swing by and then began to croak like a frog.   Wonderful!

Perhaps less folks know what a wonderful mimic the Stellar's Jay is.  We see these jays every day, both feeding in our backyard as well as everywhere along the trail or at regional parks.  The vocalizations are really great .  The Stellar's can imitate a red shouldered hawk cry with some proficiency, and you need a bit of practice to know the difference.  But the surprise that we had this week was a jay that was on a branch overhanging the creek on Coyote Creek Trail.  We were down by the creek watching some mallards and mergansers, when we heard a very odd quacking.  None of the ducks were making this noise and it took a bit of time to recognize that the quacking was above our heads and coming from the jay!  Very cool mimic, this bird.