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State bird a bully
Stephen Lyn Bales - Thu, Mar, 27, 2008
In 1933, the state of Tennessee formerly adopted a State Bird. We weren’t the first to do it; actually we were one of the last: 46th out of only 48 states at the time.
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The Ten-nessee Ornitholog-ical Society led an education campaign that ended with a statewide election. More than 70,000 people cast a ballot and the northern mockingbird received the most votes: 15,553. Rounding out the top five were the American robin with 15,073 votes, northern cardinal with 13,969 votes, northern bobwhite with 10,460 votes and eastern bluebird with 9,125 votes.
Tennessee Senate Joint Resolution No. 51 passed April 19. It read, in part: “Whereas, 45 of the 48 States of the Union have chosen an official bird for their commonwealth, and whereas, the state of Tennessee did not, until this year, determine to choose the State Bird.”
The proclamation continued with additional legalize — whereas, whereas, whereas — that ultimately led to “therefore, be it resolved, that the Mocking Bird is hereby declared the official State Bird of Tennessee.” (Mockingbird is one word, but who am I to question their work?)
Mockingbirds probably won because they are such accomplished singers.
A fully mature male mocker may have hundreds of song phrases in his repertoire. They are mimics and often imitate other birds, car horns, squeaky doors, fire alarms and all sorts of other odd things.
The female mockingbirds choose the males that have claimed the best territory and have the greatest range of songs.
But our State Bird also has a dark side: they can be very aggressive. I recently received a phone call about a mockingbird that had claimed a shrub and was chasing away all the birds that came to a nearby feeder. The caller was upset. She didn’t want to stop feeding the birds and she liked the mocker’s singing; she just didn’t want him to be so domineering.
Mockingbirds will sometimes adopt a territory and bully anything that comes into its invisible boundaries. If there happens to be a birdfeeder in that space, he claims it as his own.
If this happens, there are two things you can do: move the feeder to the other side of the house for a while or overwhelm the tenacious bird with multiple feeders spaced out around your house. At first the mocker may try to expand its territory and defend several feeders, but this is rather difficult and it will eventually give up. Overwhelmed and vanquished, it may even let birds return to the original feeder.
Ask the ancient Romans: the greater the empire, the harder it is to hold. Bravado has its limits. It will only last until it is seriously challenged.
My condolences go to the family of Elbert Marguerat who recently passed away. Elbert was a long-time reader of this column. We exchanged e-mails often.
Lyn Bales can be reached at 865-577-4717, ext. 19 or stephenlynbales.blogspot.com. His book “Natural Histories: Stories from the Tennessee Valley” is available at local bookstores.
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