Excellent natural imitator - green mingle, even its appearance tends to merge with nature. As for her amazing song, you will hear in it a splash of a night pond, and the chirping of insects, and even a human voice - after all, this amazing disheveled songstress will eagerly pick up and smash any sound she hears.
Appearance
Adult Green Mockingbird does not exceed 16 cm in length with a wingspan of about 25 cm. The color scheme of the bird is closer to olive hues, with a brownish tint on the back and lighter on the wings and belly. In the summer, the songbird "sheds" the colors a little and seems to be covered with a grayish fluff.
The head of the bird is round, the beak is wide, with a spatula at the base, above the eyes there is an expressive eyebrow of a light contrasting color. Of the familiar birds, the green chiffon is more reminiscent of a warbler.
Habitat and migration
All types of intermingling are ubiquitous throughout European territory, partly in Asian countries, from where in late August-September the flocks are removed for wintering in the tropical forests of Africa, alongcoast of the Congo River. The green chick is in no hurry to return home - you can see a bird in the places of permanent nesting not earlier than April, or even a month later.
For the settlement, the songbird chooses mainly light forests with well-developed shrubs and a high level of dampness. Most often, mixing is observed in mature birch undergrowth, which transmits a large amount of light, aspen forests, in old abandoned clearings, as well as in forest plantations. Less commonly, a bird can be seen within the city, in parklands or squares. In the mountains, green mingling is impossible to find, as well as in areas with exclusively shrubbery, since the birds nest only on tall trees.
Lifestyle and nesting
Mockings descend to the ground only when absolutely necessary, as the food that forms the basis of their diet - all kinds of insects - can be found in abundance in the trees. Finding a nest of a brisk bird among the branches of fruit trees in the garden is a pleasant surprise for the gardener.
Mockingbirds need a lot of food to maintain a constant body temperature and normal life, and in the part of the garden or forest where most nests of this bird are observed, the problem with harmful insects is significantly reduced.
With the onset of the first cold weather, starting from the end of August, when it becomes difficult to get insects, the mix enriches its daily table with elderberry, mountain ash, buckthorn berries. Such compliance in the choice of food contributes to the fact that, in rare cases, caughtsongbird is housed and tried to be kept on a food base for goldfinches and tits, which is commercially available in the form of mixed formulations.
A common mistake in keeping a chuckle is to limit her flying space to the size of a cage. In such conditions, the forest baby will not live even six months, while, subject to the conditions familiar to her, the life of a songbird will last up to four years.
In their natural environment, birds settle in almost any crown and even in tall shrubs with the only condition - the nest should be no lower than a meter from the ground. A dwelling, woven from improvised material, is fastened in the fork of the branches in such a way that even a strong wind could not loosen the barrel-shaped structure.
During construction, everything that caught the eye during the search is used - blades of grass, hair, animal hair, shreds of cobwebs, bird feathers, rags. In many nests, even scraps of paper are found. As befits a tiny bird, the mockingbird's nest is a match for it - about 10 cm in diameter, up to 8 cm high.
Mating season
Mocking reaches breeding age in less than a year from birth. Males are easy to recognize during this period by their loud calling singing. The green mingling rarely sits in one place during mating chants, often flies from tree to tree or within its crown. During this period, and especially after determining their territory and building a nest, males become aggressive. Enough of some othera medium-sized bird to sit on a branch not far from the finished dwelling, like a master on outstretched wings, with widely spread feathers, falls on the offender and drives him away.
When attacking other birds or for a greater warning, males use a special threatening signal, which is expressed by frequent clicking of the beak. During the mating season of these individuals, an alarming clicking sound is an invariable accompanying chord of the area's favorite cheering.
Approximately 3 weeks after the female establishes herself in the new nest, she lays variegated pink-brown eggs (three to six) and patiently incubates for two weeks. In nursing the chicks, which become independent on the 12-14th day after birth, the female and the male participate equally.
Mockingbird Songs
The voice of the green laughter is difficult to attribute to any particular timbre, although the pattern in the sound of the songs is still visible - this is such a metallic nasality “in the nose”, against which the song pours out without beginning and end with typical for many others bird notes. The brightest repetitive cries that immediately help to identify a laugh: “tweeee, tweeee”, “tsvoooy, tsyvoooy”, “cherki, cherki”.
A bird never starts to sing sitting on the ground or in a bush - the song is always carried high from the crown of trees, and it is almost impossible to see the singer himself.
