Mockingbirds are a group of

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

birds from the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Mimid __NOTOC__ The mimids are the New World family of passerine birds, Mimidae, that includes thrashers, mockingbirds, tremblers, and the New World catbirds. As their name (Latin for "mimic") suggests, these birds are notable for their vocalizatio ...

ae. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of other birds and the sounds of insects and amphibians, often loudly and in rapid succession. There are about 17

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

in two

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

, although three species of mockingbird from the Galapagos Islands were formerly separated into a third genus, '' Nesomimus''. The mockingbirds do not appear to form a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gr ...

lineage, as '' Mimus'' and ''

Melanotis ''Melanotis'' is a genus of bird in the family Mimidae. It contains the following species: * Blue mockingbird (''Melanotis caerulescens'') * Blue-and-white mockingbird The blue-and-white mockingbird (''Melanotis hypoleucus'') is a species ...

'' are not each other's closest relatives; instead, ''

'' appears to be more closely related to the

catbirds Several unrelated groups of songbirds are called catbirds because of their wailing calls, which resemble a cat's meowing. The genus name ''Ailuroedus'' likewise is from the Greek for "cat-singer" or "cat-voiced". Australasian catbirds are the ...

, while the closest living relatives of '' Mimus'' appear to be

thrasher Thrashers are a New World group of passerine birds related to mockingbirds and New World catbirds. Like these, they are in the family Mimidae. There are 15 species in one large and 4 monotypic genera. These do not form a clade but are ...

s, such as the

sage thrasher The sage thrasher (''Oreoscoptes montanus'') is a medium-sized passerine bird from the family Mimidae, which also includes mockingbirds, tremblers, and New World catbirds. It is the only member of the genus ''Oreoscoptes''. This seems less clo ...

.Hunt, Jeffrey S.; Bermingham, Eldredge; & Ricklefs, Robert E. (2001):
Molecular systematics and biogeography of Antillean thrashers, tremblers, and mockingbirds (Aves: Mimidae)
" ''

Auk An auk or alcid is a bird of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the murres, guillemots, auklets, puffins, and murrelets. The word "auk" is derived from Icelandic ''álka'', from Old Norse ''alka'' (a ...

'' 118(1): 35–55. DOI:10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118 035:MSABOA.0.CO;2Barber, Brian R.; Martínez-Gómez, Juan E. & Peterson, A. Townsend (2004) "Systematic position of the Socorro mockingbird ''Mimodes graysoni''." '' J. Avian Biol.'' 35: 195–198. Mimus polyglottos (Mockingbird Fledgling)

Mimus polyglottos (Mockingbird Fledgling)

The only mockingbird commonly found in North America is the

northern mockingbird The northern mockingbird (''Mimus polyglottos'') is a mockingbird commonly found in North America. This bird is mainly a permanent resident, but northern birds may move south during harsh weather. This species has rarely been observed in Europe ...

''(Mimus polyglottos)''. The Greek word means 'multiple languages'. Mockingbirds are known for singing late at night, even past midnight.

Species in taxonomic order

''Mimus'': *

Brown-backed mockingbird The brown-backed mockingbird (''Mimus dorsalis'') is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is found in Argentina and Bolivia. Taxonomy and systematics The brown-backed mockingbird is a sister species to the white-banded mockingbird (' ...

, ''Mimus dorsalis'' *

Bahama mockingbird The Bahama mockingbird (''Mimus gundlachii'') is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is found in the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica and the Turks and Caicos Islands, and is a vagrant to Florida. Taxonomy and systematics The Bahama mock ...

, ''Mimus gundlachii'' *

Long-tailed mockingbird The long-tailed mockingbird (''Mimus longicaudatus'') is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is found in Ecuador and Peru. Taxonomy and systematics The long-tailed mockingbird has four subspecies, the nominate ''Mimus longicaudatu ...

, ''Mimus longicaudatus'' *

Patagonian mockingbird The Patagonian mockingbird (''Mimus patagonicus'') is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is found in much of Argentina and locally in Chile. Taxonomy and systematics The Clements taxonomy and BirdLife International consider the Pat ...

, ''Mimus patagonicus'' *

Chilean mockingbird The Chilean mockingbird (''Mimus thenca''), locally known as ''tenca'', is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It primarily inhabits Chile's northern half, though there are sightings in Argentina. Taxonomy and systematics The Chilean m ...

, ''Mimus thenca'' *

White-banded mockingbird The white-banded mockingbird (''Mimus triurus'') is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo ...

, ''Mimus triurus'' *

Northern mockingbird The northern mockingbird (''Mimus polyglottos'') is a mockingbird commonly found in North America. This bird is mainly a permanent resident, but northern birds may move south during harsh weather. This species has rarely been observed in Europe ...

, ''Mimus polyglottos'' *

Socorro mockingbird The Socorro mockingbird (''Mimus graysoni'') is an endangered mockingbird endemic to Socorro Island in Mexico's Revillagigedo Islands. The specific epithet commemorates the American ornithologist Andrew Jackson Grayson. ''Mimus graysoni'' ...

, ''Mimus graysoni'' *

Tropical mockingbird The tropical mockingbird (''Mimus gilvus'') is a resident breeding bird from southern Mexico to northern and eastern South America and in the Lesser Antilles and other Caribbean islands. Taxonomy and systematics The tropical mockingbird has ...

, ''Mimus gilvus'' *

Chalk-browed mockingbird The chalk-browed mockingbird (''Mimus saturninus'') is a bird in the family mimidae. It is found in Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, Suriname, and Uruguay. Taxonomy and systematics The chalk-browed mockingbird has four subspecies, the ...

, ''Mimus saturninus'' Formerly ''Nesomimus'' (endemic to the Galapagos): * Hood mockingbird, ''Mimus macdonaldi'' *

Galápagos mockingbird The Galápagos mockingbird (''Mimus parvulus'') is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is endemic to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. Systematics The Galápagos mockingbird is one of four mockingbird species endemic to the Galápagos I ...

, ''Mimus parvulus'' * Floreana mockingbird or Charles mockingbird, ''Mimus trifasciatus'' * San Cristóbal mockingbird, ''Mimus melanotis'' ''Melanotis'': *

Blue mockingbird The blue mockingbird (''Melanotis caerulescens'') is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is endemic to Mexico, but has occurred as a vagrant in the southern United States. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, sub ...

, ''Melanotis caerulescens'' *

Blue-and-white mockingbird The blue-and-white mockingbird (''Melanotis hypoleucus'') is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is found in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. Taxonomy and systematics The blue-and-white mockingbird is monotypic. It and t ...

, ''Melanotis hypoleucus''

Charles Darwin

When the survey voyage of HMS ''Beagle'' visited the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands ( Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuad ...

in September to October 1835, the naturalist

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

noticed that the mockingbirds ''Mimus thenca'' differed from island to island, and were closely allied in appearance to mockingbirds on the

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

n mainland. Nearly a year later when writing up his notes on the return voyage he speculated that this, together with what he had been told about

Galápagos tortoise The Galápagos tortoise or Galápagos giant tortoise (''Chelonoidis niger'') is a species of very large tortoise in the genus ''Chelonoidis'' (which also contains three smaller species from mainland South America). It comprises 15 subspecies ...

s, could undermine the doctrine of stability of species. This was his first recorded expression of his doubts about species being immutable, which led to his being convinced about the

transmutation of species Transmutation of species and transformism are unproven 18th and 19th-century evolutionary ideas about the change of one species into another that preceded Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. The French ''Transformisme'' was a term used ...

and hence

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

References

External links

Mockingbird videos, photographs and sound recordings
on the Internet Bird Collection
Mockingbird singing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mockingbird Mimidae Symbols of Mississippi Bird common names