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Information about Mockingbird

Mockingbird
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Northern Mockingbird
Mimus polyglottos

Northern Mockingbird
Mimus polyglottos
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Passeriformes
Family:Mimidae
Genera


Melanotis
Mimus
Nesomimus


Mockingbirds are a group of New World passerine birds from the Mimidae family. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of other birds, often loudly and in rapid succession. Mockingbirds also have a reputation of being fierce defenders of their nests. Both male and female mockingbirds will attack or feign diving attacks on both domestic and wild felines, canines, crows and other birds, even hawks, as well as humans who venture too close to their nest. They will even cooperate in groups to do so at times. Other defensive tactics involve aggressive vocalizations and adults acting wounded on the ground as a lure to draw predators away from the nest site.

Mockingbirds are generally not attracted to food that attracts other birds (e.g., sunflower seeds, corn, rice, millet, etc.), but are voracious consumers of worms.

Most species are tropical, but the Northern Mockingbird breeds throughout the United States and Canada, including the northern Caribbean area. There are about 17 species in three genera. These do not appear to form a monophyletic lineage: Mimus and Nesomimus are quite closely related; their closest living relatives appear to be some thrashers, such as the Sage Thrasher. Melanotis is more distinct; it seems to represent a very ancient basal lineage of Mimidae.(Hunt et al. 2001, Barber et al. 2004)

Species in taxonomic order

Genus Mimus - typical mockingbirds Genus Nesomimus - Galápagos mockingbirds (4 species) Genus Melanotis - blue mockingbirds

References

  • Barber, Brian R.; Martínez-Gómez, Juan E. & Peterson, A. Townsend (2004): Systematic position of the Socorro mockingbird Mimodes graysoni. J. Avian Biol. 35: 195-198. doi:10.1111/j.0908-8857.2004.03233.x (HTML abstract)
  • Hunt, Jeffrey S.; Bermingham, Eldredge; & Ricklefs, Robert E. (2001): Molecular systematics and biogeography of Antillean thrashers, tremblers, and mockingbirds (Aves: Mimidae). Auk 118(1): 35–55. DOI:10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118[0035:MSABOA]2.0.CO;2 HTML fulltext without images
M. polyglottos

Binomial name
Mimus polyglottos
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Northern Mockingbird range
Green = all-year, yellow = summer only


The
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Passeriformes
Linnaeus, 1758

Suborders
  • Acanthisitti
  • Tyranni
  • Passeri


A passerine is a bird of the giant order Passeriformes. More than half of all species of bird are passerines.
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Mimidae
Bonaparte, 1853

Genera

Allenia
Cinclocerthia
Dumetella
Margarops
Melanoptila
Melanotis
Mimus
Nesomimus
Oreoscoptes
Ramphocinclus
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Melanotis

Melanotis is a genus of bird in the Mimidae family. It contains the following species:
  • Blue Mockingbird (Melanotis caerulescens)
  • Blue-and-white Mockingbird (Melanotis hypoleucus)

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Mimus

Mimus is a genus of bird in the Mimidae family. It contains the following species:
  • Brown-backed Mockingbird (Mimus dorsalis)
  • Bahama Mockingbird (Mimus gundlachii)
  • Long-tailed Mockingbird (

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Nesomimus
Ridgway 1890

Nesomimus is a genus of bird in the Mimidae family, the mockingbirds, catbirds and thrashers. The genus is endemic to the Galápagos Islands.
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The New World is one of the names used for the Americas. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa (collectively, the Old World).
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Passeriformes
Linnaeus, 1758

Suborders
  • Acanthisitti
  • Tyranni
  • Passeri


A passerine is a bird of the giant order Passeriformes. More than half of all species of bird are passerines.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Mimidae
Bonaparte, 1853

Genera

Allenia
Cinclocerthia
Dumetella
Margarops
Melanoptila
Melanotis
Mimus
Nesomimus
Oreoscoptes
Ramphocinclus
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family (Latin: familia, plural familiae) is a rank, or a taxon in that rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Code which applies.
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tropics are the geographic region of the Earth centered on the equator and limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere, at approximately 23°30' (23.5°) N latitude, and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at 23°30' (23.5°) S latitude.
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M. polyglottos

Binomial name
Mimus polyglottos
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Northern Mockingbird range
Green = all-year, yellow = summer only


The
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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This page is currently protected from editing until disputes have been resolved.
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Caribbean (Dutch: Cariben or Caraïben, or more commonly Antillen; French: Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Spanish: Caribe
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species is one of the basic units of biological classification. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.
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Genera was an operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It was essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI. The ~1.
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In phylogenetics, a group is monophyletic (Greek: "of one race") if it consists of an inferred common ancestor and all its descendants. A taxonomic group that contains organisms but not their common ancestor is called polyphyletic, and a group that contains some but not all
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Mimus

Mimus is a genus of bird in the Mimidae family. It contains the following species:
  • Brown-backed Mockingbird (Mimus dorsalis)
  • Bahama Mockingbird (Mimus gundlachii)
  • Long-tailed Mockingbird (

..... Click the link for more information.
Nesomimus
Ridgway 1890

Nesomimus is a genus of bird in the Mimidae family, the mockingbirds, catbirds and thrashers. The genus is endemic to the Galápagos Islands.
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Thrashers are a New World group of passerine birds related to mockingbirds and New World catbirds. Like these, they are in the Mimidae family. There are 15 species in one large and 4 monotypic genera.

These do not form a clade but are a phenetic assemblage.
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Oreoscoptes
Baird, 1858

Species: O. montanus

Binomial name
Oreoscoptes montanus
(Townsend, 1837)

The Sage Thrasher,
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Melanotis

Melanotis is a genus of bird in the Mimidae family. It contains the following species:
  • Blue Mockingbird (Melanotis caerulescens)
  • Blue-and-white Mockingbird (Melanotis hypoleucus)

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In phylogenetics, basal members of a group diverged earlier than a subgroup of others (or vice versa). It is often used in opposition to the word derived. The following are example usages of the term basal:....
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Mimus

Mimus is a genus of bird in the Mimidae family. It contains the following species:
  • Brown-backed Mockingbird (Mimus dorsalis)
  • Bahama Mockingbird (Mimus gundlachii)
  • Long-tailed Mockingbird (

..... Click the link for more information.


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