General

Bahama Mockingbird: Medium-sized mockingbird with gray-brown upperparts and dark-streaked, pale gray underparts. Wings are dark with two white bars and white feather edges. Tail is long and white-tipped. Sexes are similar. Juvenile lacks dark streaks.

Range and Habitat

Bahama Mockingbird: Breeds throughout the Bahama Islands south to the Turks Bank north of Hispaniola, on cays along the northern coast of Cuba, and in an isolated region of dry limestone forests along the southern Jamaican coast. In Florida, the Bahama Mockingbird is rare but regular along the southeast coast. Preferred habitats include dry scrub.

Voice Text

"cheewee, chipwee, chipwoo, cheewoo"

Interesting Facts

 The Bahama Mockingbird was virtually unknown on the most northerly Bahamian islands in the late 1800’s, but is now well established on Abaco and on eastern Grand Bahama Island.

 Statements in some older literature noting that the "more aggressive" Northern Mockingbird was driving it into oblivion have been found to be unsubstantiated. Development of the more populated Bahamian Islands has simply had the effect of substituting an obvious, exuberant species for one relatively shy around man.

 A group of mockingbirds has many collective nouns, including an "echo", "exactness", "plagiary", and "ridicule" of mockingbirds.

Author

Gary Owen Dick