Thursday Birdblogging

The state bird of Texas is the mockingbird, any suprise there? I think not. It has a bad reputation that I found out is wrong, as I had always believed it laid its eggs in other birds' nests and the chick pushed the original eggs out. Nope.

The mockingbird has great long trills of variegated song, often 'mocks' other birds. I had a treat not long ago, hearing a mockingbird do its rather too musical version of our local Kite's screech. Actualy, the mockingbird doesn't exactly strike fear into the hearts of the Kite's usual prey, which seems to be smaller songbirds.

Mockingbirds get rather aggressive when defending their nests, and a neighbor of mine for awhile had to carry an umbrella to ward off the nesting bird when she visited her mailbox.

This great shot of the mockingbird from the-curiously-strong-aginghippie.blogspot.com, via the site's photobucket.