Comments on: City mockingbirds can tell the difference between individual people

By: Kay Lee

Kay Lee — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:19:55 +0000

There is a Mockingbird nest in one of my trees and there is a male and a female guarding the nest. I have been attacked repeatedly for a couople of weeks now. The interesting part is that only one of them attacks. The other flies along the area but does not attack. I have not been able to harvest vegetables or pull weeds without continous attacks from, I am assuming ,the female. She visciously attacks me with only seconds in between. Something must have happened to the female as she no longer is around. the male is continueing to feed the young and flies out of the nest when I am around. He just chirps and perches close to where I am, but does not attack. I wonder if I am right that the female is the more aggresive one and that the male gives her support without attacking. It is interesting to see that one takes over taking care of their young, as a human would, in the absence of the partner,.

By: sugarpeepsez

sugarpeepsez — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:50:45 +0000

They might be able to distinguish individual humans, but a male mockingbird in my yard could not recognise himself in a mirror, specifically, the side mirror of our car, because he spent hours fighting with his own reflection.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:17:34 +0000

Broadly speaking there are 2 types of mocking birds. One is the Northern Mockingbird, as mentioned in the article and the rest can be classified as ‘Others’. The only obvious distinction is all of them are 4 times more intelligent then you except for the one mentioned in the article … which is just twice as intelligent as you.

By: april

april — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:34:29 +0000

How many different kinds of mickingbirds are there.whats the different types and what are there distinctions?

By: CatBallou

CatBallou — Sat, 23 May 2009 07:50:26 +0000

I love you, Ed, but “rapid expansion …have been detrimental”? Really?

By: K. Signal Eingang

K. Signal Eingang — Wed, 20 May 2009 22:20:54 +0000

I recall a story some time ago where a school bus driver in Ohio (or maybe it was Indiana?) had taken to feeding the local crows on her lunch break. The crows not only recognized her but came to recognize her bus as well – she nearly lost her job when the birds started ripping windshield wipers and various rubber seals off the bus out of boredom as they waited for her to come out and take her break.

By: Markk

Markk — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:50:12 +0000

Does the study distinguish between recognition of individual people or specific actions? In other words are the birds reacting to specific actions that anyone could do or specific people? This is hard to tell apart, the people approaching the nest may make certain gestures or motions, turning and so on. This could be accounted for, eg, by having different people try to mimic the nest approachers actions. Was that done?

By: GodlessHeathen

GodlessHeathen — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:48:04 +0000

I have a Western Scrub-Jay friend who definitely picks me out from the crowd. I’m continually amazed that he knows it’s me whether I’m riding my bicycle or on foot, wearing a bike helmet or not, with another person or alone. He recognizes me and flies toward me from up to 200′ away. The sidewalk/bike path is continually full of pedestrians and cyclists, so I often wave at him to get his attention. However, many times I just turn and notice him flying alongside my bike as I ride to our peanut-feeding spot. I know that he does not visit people randomly and I can only guess how he instantly recognizes me among the hundreds of people he sees each day.

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:54:43 +0000

Got me. I’m just glad that ten years of putting my money into funding mockingbird-related projects has paid off at last.

By: JJ

JJ — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:48:33 +0000

Admit it, the research project and the resulting article were all just to build up to the “To Kill a Mockingbird” reference.