Bird nerd

There is northern mockingbird singing his little heart out right outside my window right now.  It makes my little musical heart happy.

Source: US Fish and Wildlife Service

 "Why Colleen," you may ask, "how can you tell it's a mockingbird if it's mocking other birds?"  Good question!  There's a fun trick I learned from my ornithology professor about this :)  Mockingbirds sing a progression of different bird songs in groups of 3 or 4.  So you may hear the same mocked song 3 or 4 times, then another mocked song 3 or 4 times, and so on.  Other birds that mock have different patterns.  This video demonstrates it pretty well, and if you're from Maryland you may recognize some of these pre-dawn calls:

The real question is, why on earth is a bird singing so vociferously in October?  The breeding season is over, and all the juveniles have fledged, even second nesting attempts.

I know - I am a big bird nerd :)