Eastern Mimidae

     Northern mockingbirds, gray catbirds and brown thrashers are eastern North America species of the mimidae family.   Although good singers in their own right, mockingbirds and catbirds are excellent mimics of the sounds they hear, including the songs of other kinds of birds.
     All mimidae are adaptable, aggressive, camouflaged, long-legged and long-tailed.  About the size of American robins, but slimmer, eastern mimidae live in thickets of shrubs and vines in hedgerows between fields, on the edges of woods, ponds and waterways, in older suburban areas, and other, similar, overgrown habitats.  All these species are common in their ranges.  And all eat invertebrates and fruit during warmer months.  They help farmers and gardeners by eating harmful insects. Catbirds and thrashers migrate north in spring and south in autumn, but mockers are stay-at-homes, meaning they don't migrate at all.
     A more southern bird, mockingbirds have been common here in the Middle Atlantic States only since the 1950's.  They are light-gray all over, to be invisible in the shrubbery they inhabit, with white patches on their wings and tails that are most noticeable when they fly.  Mockers on the ground often lift and lower their wings repeatedly, possibly to show off those white areas as signals to relatives.  Male mockers sing beautifully through much of the day, and even on moonlit nights.           
     Mockers, along with American goldfinches, chipping sparrows and American robins, are adapted to new suburbs with their smaller bushes and trees for food gathering and raising young in twiggy nests they place in protective shrubbery.  But in winter, mockingbirds eat a variety of berries, from both wild and planted shrubs and trees.  Each mocker stakes out a territory with berries in it that they defend with great vigor against robins, cedar waxwings and other kinds of berry-eating birds.
     Catbirds are dark-gray all over, with an even darker cap and a reddish-brown patch of feathers under the tail.  This common bird blends into the dark shadows of shrubbery where it also places its nurseries to raise young.  Male catbirds sing delightfully much of each day and during the darkening of dusk each summer evening until the end of July.  Sometimes one male singing gently will sound like a tree full of vocalizing birds.  And at dusk, catbird songs are so quiet and relaxing that it sounds like the birds are talking to themselves.
     Catbirds are exceptionally interesting characters.  I have seen them, along with mockers, and little gangs of robins, waxwings and other kinds of birds, eating mulberries, cherries and other kinds of berries in this area during summer.  And I remember, over the years, a catbird or two catching small moths flying out of the grass ahead of the mower as I was cutting the lawn.
     Brown thrashers are the largest, and, I think, the most handsome and stately of eastern mimidae.  They are warm-brown on top, which camouflages them, and white below with rows of black spots.   When singing from a tree top, males voices are loud and ringing, and each bird seems to repeat each phrase in its series of phrases.
     Interestingly, all mimidae have long, strong legs, which allow them to dart quickly on the ground from one clump of  shrubbery to another.  Over time, one of those species could develop legs like those on road-runners.  Already mimidae run down small prey like invertebrates and tiny lizards and snakes.  So an eastern, road-runner-like bird is not impossible.
     Look for these common species of eastern mimidae when in areas of thickets.  They are intriguing, adaptable birds that are also attractive in plain ways.  And they have lovely songs, are entertaining and helpful by eating pesky insects.