[texbirds] Mocking Birds doing a bird call before the type of bird calling arrives
- From: Mollie Kloepper <mkloepper@xxxxxxx>
- To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2014 11:07:02 -0600
Sometime ago there was a string on text birds about the northern mocking
birds. Birders were observing the birds making a call of a migrant bird
about a week before the migrant bird was were the mocking bird was.
The following is a theory that might explain this, but it is one my
skills would not be good enough to test. We know birds, even small ones
like humming birds can and do carry out amazing feats of memory--for
example the humming bird showing up for several years each spring
buzzing a nail where the feeder was hung last year.
1. Suppose the mocking birds are recalling calls by navigating in memory
of seasonal changers in plants.
2. Second suppose there is a selective advantage for doing this, because
it draws things that would eat their eggs or nestlings away from the nest.
The question: Does your mocking bird sound like a flock of migrants
right by the nest or only if the bird is a little away from the nest?
Mollie Kloepper
Austin
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