For those people who just do not like the way the Northern Mockingbird seems to harass them day and night, perhaps it’s better to think that the bird isn’t laughing at you, it’s laughing with you. But really, it’s not mocking anyone, particularly you (photo by Mike Baird).

It’s actually mimicking. This highly-intelligent bird has evolved to impress current and potential mates by the number of different songs it can sing. And it learns these songs from other birds – sometimes even other animals. Many novice bird enthusiasts have gone into the trees looking for a jay or a sparrow they’ve heard only to find that they’ve been fooled by a Northern Mockingbird. But the bird will sometimes imitate frogs, cats, and other things.

According to the folks at 10,000 Birds, the Northern Mockingbird is known scientifically as Mimus polyglottos, which comes from the Greek “mimus” to mimic, and “ployglottos” formany-tongued.

A male Northern Mockingbird can learn up to 200 different calls in its lifetime. And it is anxious to show those off. Males will sing all day, and all through the night. Northern Mockingbirds typically sing from February through August, and again from September to early November. A male may sing differently in each season.

The fact that the bird can learn so many songs is a testament to its overall intelligence, and its spunk. This is a bird not known to do anything halfway. If it’s going to sing, it’s going to sing big. If it senses a threat to its nest, it will dive at anyone or anything, regardless of size, with great ferocity.

For those people so bothered by the Northern Mockingbird, we hope they aren’t driven to violence. Harper Lee, author of the famous book, would say that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird:

“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

But if you don’t believe Harper Lee, there’s always the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Incidentally, there are several types of mockingbirds in the world. The Northern Mockingbird is so called because it lives much further north than the others.