Northern Hero
This remarkable bird is one of my favorite from all the birds I have in my backyard. The Northern Mockingbird.
The northern mockingbird is a medium-sized mimid that has long legs and tail. Both males and females look alike. Its upper parts are colored gray, while its underparts have a white or whitish-gray color. It has parallel white wing bars on the half of the wings connected near the white patch giving it a distinctive appearance in flight. The black central rectrices and typical white lateral rectrices are also noticeable in flight. The iris is usually a light green-yellow or a yellow, but there have been instances of an orange color. The bill is black with a brownish black appearance at the base.
The mockingbird usually resides in fields and forest edges. It is usually seen in farmlands, roadsides, city parks, suburban areas, and open grassy areas with thickets and brushy deserts.
Although many species of bird imitate the vocalizations of other birds, the Northern Mockingbird is the best known in North America for doing so. Among the species and vocalizations imitated are Carolina wren, Northern Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, Eastern Towhee, House Sparrow, and Eastern Bluebird songs, calls of the Northern Flicker and, Black Phoebe to name a few.
A couple of days ago a Cooper’s Hawk came to the backyard and went after a group of small birds at the feeders. One Northern Mockingbird that was on the top of the roof descended rapidly and flew across in front of the hawk and distracted it from the chase, the hawk went after the mockingbird and the chase began. It was two master flyers’ dog fight. Not very long after the mockingbird played a what it has to be a rehearsed and superb move, he flew directly to one corner of my neighbor’s house and just inches before impact, he made a tight left turn and the hawk made the cut to the right hardly in time not without partially bumping the down spout of the house, made a loud thud sound but the hawk kept on flying, the mockingbird was by then safely away from the beaten predator.
“Through the years I’ve seen several chases like that one between a mockingbird and a larger predator, thus, saving smaller birds from becoming victims.”
Photo Gallery
Text and photographs © HJ Ruiz – Avian101
H.J. Ruiz - Avian101 
What a proud, dignified and brave bird! Love your story HJ. 🙂
Thank you very much Barbara! 🙂
One to stand up against the big guys….what a wonderful bird! 🙂
I agree with you Dorinda! Thank you! 🙂
What a very clever bird.
Yes Susan! Thank you! 🙂
A hero of the bird world!
Thank you Clare! He took a risk for his fellows! 🙂
He certainly did! 🙂
Great post! How clever too with his moves 🙂 This little hero is my favorite too among small birds in the salt marsh. They also imitate osprey calls…sounds a bit funny, but one can distinguish it. I’ve heard it only twice.
They are clever and fearless. I’ve been very impressed by their flying skills several times. Superb flyers! Thank you so much for sharing Tiny! 🙂 Love!
I saw one of these duels just the other day as I was driving in a more rural area of town. The large hawk was flying along, being battered from side to side, top to bottom by a lone mockingbird. It was quite amazing.
It is amazing to see a small bird confronting a much larger one. It take guts! Thank you for sharing! 🙂
Thanks for the story and great pics. I’d like to see (and hear) mockingbird one day. Only yesterday I was watching a hobby hunting dragonflies. Amazing aerobatics!
Hobby when hunting reach very fast speeds and is a great hunter like most Falcons. Thank you for sharing Paula! 🙂
Wonderful story Avian, and love your pics, as we don’t see these birds here. It is heartening to see birds decoying and protecting smaller birds, what a rare gem of an experience, that would have been a good inclusion in my new book, “What the Birds teach Us” but this was your experience with your birds, and wonderfully presented!
Thank you for your kind words and sharing Ashley! 🙂
What a great story. Such a clever bird and brave too. I wish I’d seen the action! 🙂
Actions like that fill my heart with more love for the birds, for there are good deeds out there as well of unsung heroes. Thank you Jane! 🙂
Superb photos and I loved your description of the aerial acrobatics and “dog fight”!
Thank you so much Amy! 🙂