All Topics  
Mockingbird

 
Mockingbird

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Mockingbird
 
 
  Topics Mockingbird Topic Home

Mockingbirds are a group of New World
New World

The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and Australasia. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa ....
 passerine
Passerine

A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders:...
 bird
Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
s from the Mimid
Mimid

The mimids are the New World family of perching bird birds, Mimidae, that includes thrashers, mockingbirds, tremblers, and the New World catbirds....
ae family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of insect and amphibian
Amphibian

Amphibians , such as frogs, toads, salamanders, newts and caecilians, are cold-blooded animals that metamorphose from a juvenile, water-breathing form to an adult, air-breathing form....
 sounds as well as other bird songs, often loudly and in rapid succession. There are about 17 species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
 in three genera
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
. These do not appear to form a monophyletic lineage: Mimus
Mimus

Mimus is a genus of bird in the Mimidae family.It contains these species:* Brown-backed Mockingbird * Bahama Mockingbird * Long-tailed Mockingbird ...
 and Nesomimus
Nesomimus

Nesomimus is a bird genus in the family Mimidae . The genus is endemism to the Gal?pagos Islands. The species were important in Charles Darwin's development of the theory of evolution by natural selection....
 are quite closely related; their closest living relatives appear to be some thrasher
Thrasher

Thrashers are a New World group of perching bird birds related to mockingbirds and New World catbirds. Like these, they are in the Mimidae family ....
s, such as the Sage Thrasher
Sage Thrasher

The Sage Thrasher, Oreoscoptes montanus, is a medium-sized perching bird bird from the family Mimidae, which also includes mockingbirds, tremblers and New World catbirds....
.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Mockingbird'
Start a new discussion about 'Mockingbird'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Mockingbirds are a group of New World
New World

The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and Australasia. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa ....
 passerine
Passerine

A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders:...
 bird
Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
s from the Mimid
Mimid

The mimids are the New World family of perching bird birds, Mimidae, that includes thrashers, mockingbirds, tremblers, and the New World catbirds....
ae family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of insect and amphibian
Amphibian

Amphibians , such as frogs, toads, salamanders, newts and caecilians, are cold-blooded animals that metamorphose from a juvenile, water-breathing form to an adult, air-breathing form....
 sounds as well as other bird songs, often loudly and in rapid succession. There are about 17 species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
 in three genera
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
. These do not appear to form a monophyletic lineage: Mimus
Mimus

Mimus is a genus of bird in the Mimidae family.It contains these species:* Brown-backed Mockingbird * Bahama Mockingbird * Long-tailed Mockingbird ...
 and Nesomimus
Nesomimus

Nesomimus is a bird genus in the family Mimidae . The genus is endemism to the Gal?pagos Islands. The species were important in Charles Darwin's development of the theory of evolution by natural selection....
 are quite closely related; their closest living relatives appear to be some thrasher
Thrasher

Thrashers are a New World group of perching bird birds related to mockingbirds and New World catbirds. Like these, they are in the Mimidae family ....
s, such as the Sage Thrasher
Sage Thrasher

The Sage Thrasher, Oreoscoptes montanus, is a medium-sized perching bird bird from the family Mimidae, which also includes mockingbirds, tremblers and New World catbirds....
. Melanotis
Melanotis

Melanotis is a genus of bird in the Mimidae family.It contains the following species:* Blue Mockingbird * Blue-and-white Mockingbird ...
 is more distinct; it seems to represent a very ancient basal
Basal (phylogenetics)

In phylogenetics, a basal clade is the earliest clade to branch in a larger clade; it appears at the base of a cladogram.A basal group form an outgroup to the rest of the clade, such as in the following example:...
 lineage of Mimidae.

Darwin and mockingbirds

When the survey voyage of HMS Beagle
Second voyage of HMS Beagle

The second voyage of HMS Beagle from 27 December 1831 to 2 October 1836 was the second survey expedition of HMS Beagle, under captain Robert FitzRoy who had taken over command of the ship on its first voyage after her previous captain committed suicide....
 visited the Galápagos Islands
Galápagos Islands

Gal?pagos Islands are an archipelago of Island#Volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, 972 km west of continental Ecuador....
 in September to October 1835, the naturalist Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin Royal Society was an English people natural history who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolution over time from common descent, through the process he called natural selection....
 noticed that the mockingbirds Mimus thenca differed from island to island, and were closely allied in appearance to mockingbirds on the South American mainland. Nearly a year later when writing up his notes on the return voyage he speculated that this, together with what he had been told about Galápagos tortoise
Galápagos tortoise

The Gal?pagos tortoise , is the largest living tortoise, Endemism to seven islands of the Gal?pagos Islands. Fully grown adults can weigh over and measure long....
s, could undermine the doctrine of stability of species. This was his first recorded expression of his doubts about species being immutable, which led to him being convinced about the transmutation of species
Transmutation of species

Transmutation of species was a term used by Jean Baptiste Lamarck in 1809 for his theory that described the altering of one species into another....
 and hence evolution
Evolution

In biology, evolution is change in the heritability trait of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. These changes are caused by a combination of three main processes: variation, reproduction, and selection....
. It was only after the ship returned to England that he found out about the better known Darwin's Finches
Darwin's finches

Darwin's finches are 13 or 14 separate combinatory species of Passerine birds related to a group that Charles Darwin collected on the Gal?pagos Islands during Second voyage of HMS Beagle....
.