Northern mockingbird, the state bird of five states

Five southern states

The mockingbird is a bird of the South, and five southern states have chosen it. Florida and Texas both named it in 1927, Arkansas in 1929, Tennessee in 1933 and Mississippi in 1944. South Carolina also once had the mockingbird as its state bird, before a 1948 law replaced it with the Carolina wren.

Women’s clubs and an election

Women’s clubs were behind several of these choices. The Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs asked the Texas Legislature to name the mockingbird in 1927. In Arkansas, the Arkansas Federation of Women’s Clubs led the campaign; legislators reportedly treated it as a joke at first, but it passed after speeches stressing the bird’s usefulness to farmers. Mississippi’s Blue Book credits both the Women’s Federated Clubs and the Legislature. In Tennessee, the Tennessee Ornithological Society held a statewide election on April 11, 1933, and the Legislature confirmed the result. Florida’s choice rests on a 1927 resolution, and recent bills to replace it with the American flamingo have failed.

The many-tongued mimic

The mockingbird is a slim gray bird with flashing white wing patches and white outer tail feathers. Its song is a long medley of phrases, each repeated three or more times, much of it copied from other birds and even sirens and whistles; its scientific name, Mimus polyglottos, means roughly “many-tongued mimic.” Unmated males may sing all night. Mockingbirds also defend their nests fiercely, diving at cats, dogs and even people.

Common, but slipping

The northern mockingbird is still widespread, with a population of about 43 million, but numbers have fallen in recent decades. Partners in Flight documented a drop of about 19 percent in the United States and Canada between 1970 and 2014, and Tennessee reports a long-term decline in that state. In the 1800s the bird was heavily trapped for the cage-bird trade, and it recovered after that ended.