Birds & Bees a Nonviolent Exchange

[LeftWriteFemme]

[Martina]

[LeftWriteFemme]

[Martina]

[LeftWriteFemme]

[Martina]

oops, a spider isn't winged. sorry re that.

[Semantics]

[Kätzchen]

[Turtle]

[DMW]

Calls

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/N...ingbird/sounds

If you’ve been hearing an endless string of 10 or 15 different birds singing outside your house, you might have a Northern Mockingbird in your yard. These slender-bodied gray birds apparently pour all their color into their personalities. They sing almost endlessly, even sometimes at night, and they flagrantly harass birds that intrude on their territories, flying slowly around them or prancing toward them, legs extended, flaunting their bright white wing patches.

Size & Shape
A medium-sized songbird, a bit more slender than a thrush and with a longer tail. Mockingbirds have small heads, a long, thin bill with a hint of a downward curve, and long legs. Their wings are short, rounded, and broad, making the tail seem particularly long in flight.
Color Pattern
Mockingbirds are overall gray-brown, paler on the breast and belly, with two white wingbars on each wing. A white patch in each wing is often visible on perched birds, and in flight these become large white flashes. The white outer tail feathers are also flashy in flight.
Behavior
The Northern Mockingbird enjoys making its presence known. It usually sits conspicuously on high vegetation, fences, eaves, or telephone wires, or runs and hops along the ground. Found alone or in pairs throughout the year, mockingbirds aggressively chase off intruders on their territory.
Habitat
Look for Northern Mockingbirds in towns, suburbs, backyards, parks, forest edges, and open land at low elevations.

Cool Facts

It’s not just other mockingbirds that appreciate a good song. In the nineteenth century, people kept so many mockingbirds as cage birds that the birds nearly vanished from parts of the East Coast. People took nestlings out of nests or trapped adults and sold them in cities such as Philadelphia, St. Louis, and New York, where, in 1828, extraordinary singers could fetch as much as $50.
Northern Mockingbirds continue to add new sounds to their repertoires throughout their lives. A male may learn around 200 songs throughout its life.
The Northern Mockingbird frequently gives a "wing flash" display, where it half or fully opens its wings in jerky intermediate steps, showing off the big white patches. No one knows why it does this, but it may startle insects, making them easier to catch. On the other hand, it doesn’t often seem to be successful, and different mockingbird species do this same display even though they don’t have white wing patches.
Northern Mockingbirds sing all through the day, and often into the night. Most nocturnal singers are unmated males, which sing more than mated males during the day, too. Nighttime singing is more common during the full moon.
Northern Mockingbirds typically sing from February through August, and again from September to early November. A male may have two distinct repertoires of songs: one for spring and another for fall.
The female Northern Mockingbird sings too, although usually more quietly than the male does. She rarely sings in the summer, and usually only when the male is away from the territory. She sings more in the fall, perhaps to establish a winter territory.
The oldest Northern Mockingbird on record was 14 years and 10 months old.

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGND73NdaLs"]Listen To The Mockingbird by Brother Bones and His Shadows - YouTube[/nomedia]

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvr3lbxi1a0"]LISTEN TO THE MOCKINGBIRD - VOCAL- Ladies & Love Songs of the Civil War-Tom Roush - YouTube[/nomedia]

[Turtle]

[Sheridan]