Northern Mockingbird
(Mimus polyglottos)

Overview

Summary

© Jukka Jantunen (flickr.com/photos/jukka_jantunen)
For additional photos and vocalizations, visit Dendroica. (Link opens in a new window.)

Widespread and abundant across the southern United States, the Northern Mockingbird reaches its northern limits in Canada, primarily in extreme southern Ontario and Quebec and New Brunswick. Although not well monitored by any single survey in Canada, data provided by the Breeding Bird Survey and the Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Ontario suggest a large increase since about 1970.

Designations

Population status

Population estimate

Distribution maps

• Birds of North America Online
• Breeding Bird Survey (BBS): Relative Abundance and Breeding Distribution (1993-2012)

Migration strategy, occurrence

Responsibility for conservation of world population

Conservation and management

Once captured and sold as cage birds to markets in the United States and Europe during the 1800s, populations of the Northern Mockingbird were greatly reduced in many parts of its range (Farnsworth et al. 2011). However, in recent decades, changes to the human-altered landscape, such as creation of fields and planting of ornamental shrubs and trees, have provided breeding and wintering habitat and facilitated range expansion (Farnsworth et al. 2011). There appear to be few current threats to the species.

Bird conservation region strategies

Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:

• conservation concerns (i.e., species vulnerable due to population size, distribution, population trend, abundance, or threats)
• stewardship responsibilities (i.e., species that typify the regional avifauna or have a large proportion of their range or population in the sub-region)
• management concerns (i.e., species that require ongoing management because of their socio-economic importance as game species, or because of their impacts on other species or habitats)
• other concerns (i.e., species deemed a priority by regional experts for other reasons than those listed above or because they are listed as species at risk or concern at the provincial level)

Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.

References

• Farnsworth, G., G.A. Londono, J.U. Martin, K.C. Derrickson, and R. Breitwisch. 2011. Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Farnsworth, G., G.A. Londono, J.U. Martin, K.C. Derrickson, and R. Breitwisch. 2011. Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. (Link)