Hello Birders,
I've been listening to a local
European Blackbird for about the past 3 weeks, but it only hit me mid last week
that he is mimicking other bird calls in his song.
A search of the archives produced
this......
But Edwin doesn't mention if the
mimicry is incorporated into the song or not.
The bird I've been listening to sings
his spiel, but the last sound in it is, more often than not, a mimicked one.
Some of the sounds he has learnt from wild birds, but some, obviously, are from
captives.
The [ever-growing] list of sounds
I've heard mimicked is.....
-Cockatiels fighting (his favoured one)
-Cockatiel contact call
-Possibly a Star Finch song, not
positive about this one. (I keep Yellow Mutation Stars)
-Noisy Miner
-Magpie-lark
There is one exception to the above
statement of the mimicked sounds being at the end of the song, and that is a
Currawong call, which is produced roughly in the middle of his
song.
I could endeavour to record him if anyone is interested. He is very
loud.
Regards
Andy
