{"id":2380,"date":"2024-07-17T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbannaturestore.blog\/?p=2380"},"modified":"2024-07-17T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T15:00:00","slug":"the-great-pretenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/2024\/07\/17\/the-great-pretenders\/","title":{"rendered":"THE GREAT PRETENDERS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The song \u201cThe Great Pretender\u201d  originally released in 1955 by The Platters has been covered by a number of bands over the years.  Some of our feathered friends have their own versions of this song.  The avian band members would include none other than the Northern Mockingbird, Gray Catbird, Brown Thrasher and our year-round member, the Blue Jay.  While the song’s meaning may not be the same, these birds have an amazing repertoire of sounds, wildlife and bird calls they mimic.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You could say that the northern mockingbird\u2019s song is a love song.\u00a0 If you happen to hear one singing at night, he\u2019s letting the females know he\u2019s available.\u00a0 These night singers are either young males or older fellows who have lost their mate.\u00a0 The better the singer, the more attractive he is to the females.\u00a0 Mockingbirds have been known to have as many as 200 songs and can add to that number over the years.\u00a0 In this group the brown thrashers hold the record with an astonishing 2,000 in their repertoire!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While all of these birds are monogamous during the breeding season, blue jays and northern mockingbirds have been known to stay together for life.  Blue Jays will mourn the loss of a mate showing a decline in social activity and less vocalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blue Jays are easy to attract to your yards as they relish sunflower seeds<\/a>, peanuts<\/a> and suet<\/a>.\u00a0 If you would like to attract the rest of the group you could offer dried fruit mixes, raisins, grapes and mealworms<\/a> in a separate platform feeder<\/a>.\u00a0 If you have a grape jelly feeder for orioles, don\u2019t be surprised if you see the catbird stopping by for a snack.\u00a0 These birds will all welcome a refreshing bird bath too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now, you may be wondering how to tell them apart by song.  Of course, we\u2019re all familiar with the blue jay\u2019s raucous calls, but they will also mimic other sounds.  I have one in my neighbourhood that does an amazing job mimicking a Red-tailed Hawk.  He knows how to clear the yard so he gets the feeders all to himself.  A northern mockingbird repeats each song three times, while brown thrashers repeat songs twice and catbirds only once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bird songs are beautiful to listen to and enjoy, especially during the spring and summer months.  It\u2019s always fun to expand your listening skills with our seasonal visitors.  See if you can learn to distinguish the songs of the mockingbird, catbird and thrasher this summer.  Don\u2019t forget, the catbird will also throw in a \u2018meow\u2019 as a clue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy Summer Birding!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jane Paradis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brand Ambassador- Urban Nature Store\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The song \u201cThe Great Pretender\u201d  originally released in 1955 by The Platters has been covered by a number of bands over the years.  Some of our feathered friends have their own versions of this song.  The avian band members would include none other than the Northern Mockingbird, Gray Catbird, Brown Thrasher and our year-round member, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26,64,61,76,30,17],"class_list":["post-2380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uns-birding-blog","tag-birdseeds","tag-bluejays","tag-canadawildbirding","tag-unsbirds","tag-unsblogs","tag-urbannaturestore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}