When I picture a mockingbird, it often looks like the one below – sitting on a conspicuous perch with beak open and singing loudly.<\/p>\n
But mockingbirds don’t sing in winter. I have written about winter mockingbirds before – but every year I notice their seasonal personality change.<\/p>\n
For the last few weeks, as the weather has become grey and cold, a mockingbird has been coming to my porch in the mornings looking for raisins.<\/p>\n
Except for its flashy white wing patches, you might think it was an entirely different bird than its summer self. It is quiet!<\/p>\n
The famous singer has not a word to say. It is enough to give the widely held impression that mockingbirds fly south for winter.<\/p>\n
Some mockingbirds from colder places further north might move to warmer locations for winter, but in Brooklyn they stay put — and rest their voices.<\/p>\n I have seen where the she-bird, the mocking-bird, sat on her nest Walt Whitman, Starting from Paumanok, Leaves of Grass<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a>
\nin the briers, hatching her brood.
\nI have seen the he-bird also;
\nI have paused to hear him, near at hand, inflating his throat,
\nand joyfully singing.<\/p>\n<\/a>
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