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Mimic birds (1 Viewer)

Mynona

New member
I have been noticing a type of mimic bird in my neighborhood here in Brooklyn, NY. They seem to be able to imitate car alarms, the beep of a reversing truck, things like that. I have seen videos of these birds online, but I have always thought of them as a sort of fiction. What would a bird gain from imitating a vehicle? Imitation is often a means to pleasure. We enjoy watching things made in imitation of others (a movie, a play, a figurative artwork), or things that hint at more subtle or embedded forms of imitation (abstraction). Do birds feel pleasure when they imitate other sounds? Do parrots derive pleasure from mimicry? I was wondering just now, as I took a break from writing this text to brew some tea, what the statute of limitations on forgery was. But this is a forum on birds, so I will ask it elsewhere.
 
Probably Starling, as to why they mimic, I suspect the fact that they can, might enable them to increase their repertoire and in doing so, increase their chances of attracting a mate....and hey!...how about for the sheer pleasure of being alive?
 
As a former New Yorker, I'd go with either a Northern Mockingbird or Blue Jay

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