Why are Mocking birds called Mocking birds?

Well, of course, the actual reason is because they make the sounds / bird calls f other birds—and other soumds, including cats, alarm cats, whistles, etc.

Historically, they had much larger beaks (they were extremely large birds (20–30”) in earlier millennia, only in recent history have they been bred to their current size of 8–10”).

Farmers decided to raise mocking birds so that they could harvest their beaks and use the beaks as small shovels. Specifically, the beaks were used for cleaning out horse stalls (of horse manure and other debris). In the days before shovels were plentiful, the stalls still needed to be cleaned or the horse could catch all sorts of disease.

As I’m sure you know, cleaning out a horse stall is called “mucking” (as in, mucking out a stall). Birds that had been raised for their beaks (then called mucking beaks), were called “mucking birds”.

At some point about 150 years ago, the Audubon Society protested that “mucking bird” was insulting and rude to that species, and they lobbied for a more polite, less earthy name. Hence the new name “mocking bird”.

Thanks for all the information, @elbanditoroso .

I always assumed they were just some distant relative of Blue Jays and Grey Jays.

The mockingbirds where I live get along well with other birds, and seem to understand the concept of trade. They wull wait to be fed. and will leave me trinkets, I assume for payment—such as a piece of shiny foil wrapping, a bark chip, etc etc.

We had a Mocking Bird in our area 45 years ago that sounded like a ringing phone.

Thsat’s what is so fascinating about them, and birds that can talk, which is just mocking behavior. They can simulate voices, coach’s whistles, cats, and a beeping alarm clock.

—You’re so full of it @elbanditoroso! ((( ))) :

He duped me for sure.

I’ve mucked horse stalls!

“Mock” can mean “make fun of,” but it can also mean “mimic.” Like @Yellowdog said, mockingbirds mimic all sorts of sounds. Thus their name.

They copy other bird sounds. They can imitate a wide variety of birds so if you are looking to find a particular bird by its sounds you can be surprised.

@Dutchess_lll yes, but it was plausible….

Only if it was as big as a pterodactyl! (Visions of Fred Flintstone using a live pterodactyl to shovel up sloppy, muddy horse crap!)