A number of summers ago a mockingbird in Oak Bluffs did something new. A man that loved large parrots had obtained a new bird, a Green and Yellow Macaw. This particular macaw used to live with a family with an infant and had quite a vocabulary. It loved to say “Hello.”
The bird's caretaker had the bird outside on a perch while doing things and the bird was constantly saying “Hello.” Hour after hour, the bird was talking, and that was the word constantly repeated. He brought the bird in at night to the safety of his house.
The next day he was out in the yard and heard something saying “Hello.” The macaw was in the house. He looked for the source and there up in the tree was the resident mockingbird imitating the macaw and repeating “Hello.” It was quite distinctive and recognizable.
This behavior, while not totally unexpected, was new. In the vast and varied catalog of birds imitated by mockingbirds, no one had ever heard one speaking an English language greeting. A most talented and unusual bird, this mockingbird from Oak Bluffs.
More mockingbird information in the audio of The Weekly Bird Report, posted above.
