Re: Interesting Article - "Singing In The Brain"

["" flawn1951]

On Apr 18, 2007, at 1:31 PM, Scott Fraser wrote:



> Several years ago one of our local mockingbirds used to do a decent

> rendition of a neighbor's car alarm, the sort that goes through a

> repertoire of about 8 different up/ down, & siren sweeps. A very

> entertaining bird.



I had exactly the same occurence: a mockingbird replicating a car alarm 
sequence. An interesting factor was that it sang that call only between 3 and 
5am, which is likely to be about the time that it heard the original coming out 
of a car. So this raises the question: does the mimicing instinct include 
noting and replicating the time of day that the call was learned? This same 
mockingbird (who nested in a holly tree just outside my bedroom window) had 
plenty of other calls it used in different dayparts. 


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