BajaNomad

Smart Bird

bearbait1 - 4-25-2008 at 03:38 PM

I spent the night at portrero campground before crossing the border a few nights ago and I heard a quail way up in an oak tree and was wondering what a valley quail was doing way up there. Eventually I saw a mocking bird making the sound just outside it’s nest in a cavity in an oak tree. I sat down and listened for about 30 minutes and heard it imitate the following:

coyote
mallard
crow
hummingbird
robin
woodpecker pecking wood
acorn woodpecker calling
red tailed hawk
frog
valley quail
blackbird
common finch
mountain quail (I think, it has been 25 years since I’ve heard one)
backup alarm of farm tractor they have at the campground

It was next to campsite 25 if anybody goes through there.

bajajudy - 4-25-2008 at 05:07 PM

That is amazing. I would have loved to have heard that. Most people would have assumed that all those sounds were the real ones and not thought a thing about it.
COOL:coolup::cool::dudette:

Skipjack Joe - 4-25-2008 at 05:22 PM

Mockingbirds are cool. It's the bird call I miss the most after moving from SoCal.

I think there may be fewer now in LA than there were about 30 years ago. They were especially active in the mornings and evenings where I grew up. I remember working on my 10th grade project all through the night one time. I had never stayed awake all night in my entire life and I could barely keep my eyes open. And then about five o'clock in the morning I heard their first song. First one and then another. It came through the darkness. For some reason, I felt so good to be alive that morning. Perhaps I was sharing their joy. Still a great memory almost 50 years later.

jeans - 4-25-2008 at 05:31 PM

You really know your bird calls! I have lots of mockingbirds around my house as well as many others...including hawks that I now know as Red-Shouldered hawks (I finally went to Hawk-watch in Ramona for their free birdwatching and informational sessions).

The only thing I have consciously noticed is a car-alarm imitation.

My birds can always be relied upon notifiying me of a predator in the yard...usually snakes. They put up such a fuss that I have to go out so see what all the commotion is about. Two days ago it was a raven invading a mockingbird nest. It got away with a little baby along with at least five other birds in hot pursuit as it disappeared over my neighbor's house.

It's a jungle out there....

Taco de Baja - 4-25-2008 at 05:37 PM

Check out this guy, the Lyre bird.
He even does other bird sounds, camera sounds, car alarms, even chainsaws! Some birds are really amazing

Lyre Bird

woody with a view - 4-25-2008 at 05:38 PM

funny how y'all's see the dreaded call o' the mocking bird....when i was a booger picking kid about 7 years old my grandpa worked for the dept. of defense on north island/coronado on the swing shift.

one great morning (+/- 1972) i was startled outta my sleep by the sound of my grandpa's shotgun roaring blindly into our plum tree outside my bedroom window.....seems the old man was tired of the "mocking" bird's call as he was trying to sleep......

the SWAT team never showed, the bird was scared onto the next block, and this story has outlived my gramps by 20 years...:lol::light::bounce:

Mockingbird

tehag - 4-25-2008 at 08:32 PM

This poem may be found in the tiny print running at an angle just left of the Aztec's earing on a 100 peso note:

I love the song of the mockingbird
the bird of 400 voices
I love the color of the jade
and the stunning scent of the flowers
but I love more my brother the man

No citation.

woody with a view - 4-25-2008 at 10:10 PM

"I love the song of the mockingbird
the bird of 400 voices
I love the color of the jade
and the stunning scent of the flowers
but I love more my brother the man"


AWESOME STUFF!!!!!!!!


this site could use more of this info....
:light:

OK Woody,

The Gull - 4-26-2008 at 07:57 AM

There once was a man from Nantucket...

DENNIS - 4-26-2008 at 08:11 AM

Just the other day, my worker and I were listening to a mockingbird sitting on a pole by the house, seemingly never making the same sound twice. Vicente, with reverence in his voice, taught me the name of the bird....Sinsonte.

Santiago - 4-26-2008 at 08:35 AM

As a kid growing up in Bakersfield I had an early morning paper route - the mocking birds were relentless in attacking my head while riding my bike past their nests. We eventually did our routes in the spring with tennis rackets and swatted them when they swooped down - I eventually killed one which made me a hero with the other paper boys. Now I get great pleasure watching our cats trying to avoid the attacking mocking birds every spring. By the end of the season the damn cats won't even go outside.:lol:

Oso - 4-26-2008 at 08:45 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
Just the other day, my worker and I were listening to a mockingbird sitting on a pole by the house, seemingly never making the same sound twice. Vicente, with reverence in his voice, taught me the name of the bird....Sinsonte.


Actually that's "Tzenzontle", but the pronunciation is close.:lol:

shari - 4-26-2008 at 09:31 AM

This is THE bird that always makes me stop what I am doing and listen and grin at it's vocal talents....they are very territorial and can be heard every day in the same spots if you find one, it's worth it to visit it and hear it's incredible repetoire.

Zentzontle

tehag - 4-26-2008 at 09:37 AM

It is spelled Zentzontle on the 100 peso note.

I was awakened one morning at 3AM by yelling and gunfire. One of my neighbors was blasting away into the tree on my front porch with a 9mm pistol and screaming something like, "You're supposed to do that %$$# in the day time, not the middle of the %#%&&# night." He ran out of bullets and reeled off to his house. The mockingbird didn't even wait for the door to close behind him before it was declaring victory at full voice.


I recorded about 20 minutes of mockingbird song in my backyard in San Diego. I took the portable recorder with me later to the Colorado Desert and set it playing in the top of a creosote bush. I had never seen a mockingbird there before, but within 10 minutes there was one tearing around in that bush looking for his competition. The battery ran out and the real bird adopted the creosote, where he held forth every time I was there for the next several years. Very little of their repertoire was the same, but he sure knew it was a mockingbird. The desert bird did pretty much what the first poster here described. The bullfrog, coyote, and cow surprised me and were so true you had to know it was coming from the bird or be fooled completely.

[Edited on 4-26-2008 by tehag]

elizabeth - 4-26-2008 at 10:00 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by tehag
This poem may be found in the tiny print running at an angle just left of the Aztec's earing on a 100 peso note:

I love the song of the mockingbird
the bird of 400 voices
I love the color of the jade
and the stunning scent of the flowers
but I love more my brother the man

No citation.


It is attributed to Nezahualcoyotl, ruler of Texcoco, known as a poet, whose image is on the bill.

Oso - 4-26-2008 at 10:52 AM

I stand corrected on the spelling.

DENNIS - 4-26-2008 at 11:01 AM

Another Mexican mystery. I got sinsonte from the dictionary.

Mockingbird

tehag - 4-26-2008 at 11:24 AM

Thank you Elizabeth. I had hoped it was something like that.

bajalera - 4-26-2008 at 07:12 PM

A hummingbird has a call?

elizabeth - 4-27-2008 at 08:42 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by bajalera
A hummingbird has a call?


Can you call the clicking sound they make a call?

Birds

tehag - 4-27-2008 at 09:10 AM

Some hummers offer a little chittering and squeaking, and several kinds of male emit a pretty loud screech during mating display.

Taco de Baja - 4-28-2008 at 08:02 AM

Hummingbirds do sing. It's kind of a buzzing/humming/whistle (this takes a while to load, so be patient): http://www.geocities.com/guapster2/birdsongs/hummingbird_annas_780.wav

They also make a chirp, but that is from the male's tail feathers when he makes a high speed turn just above the ground after a long dive, to impress the ladies. Although the debate had been going on for decades as to weather the chirp was vocal or produced by feathers, it was only this year that it was proved to be the feathers:

http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/01/30_hummingbird.shtml

There is an audio clip of the chirp in the above link