The imitation game

The concept of mimicry within the vocabulary of certain birds is something that is ingrained within most human beings from a very young age. We've all grown up with talking parrots on film and TV, at least, and, beyond that, those who watch wildlife documentaries will know of a few others, especially the rightly famous footage of a Superb Lyrebird captured by BBC cameras some years ago.

In terms of more 'local' birds for those of us living in Europe, those among us who become birders quickly become familiar with a few breeding birds which are quite adept at copying sounds. Common Starlings, for one thing, regularly include mimicry within their otherwise disjointed songs: given that mynas are starlings, this is hardly too surprising. Marsh Warbler, also, is famous for its mimicry, to the extent that, in areas where this species is scarce to rare and Reed Warblers are common, any mimetic unstreaked Acrocephalus will attract attention. And Marsh Warblers are extremely mimetic, as are Blyth's Reed Warblers, of course. But Eurasian Reed Warblers can be accomplished mimics, too, even if usually within a much more 'monotonous' and otherwise typical Eurasian Reed Warbler song structure. Here is a recording that I was lucky enough to make at Ballyvergan Marsh in Co. Cork on 29th May 2018 of a more mimetic than usual Eurasian Reed Warbler, incorporating mimicry of Eurasian Jackdaw, Common Blackbird and (possibly) Western Yellow Wagtail in its song.

Eurasian Reed Warbler male Ballyvergan 29th May 2018. Same bird as in the recording above.

In fact, Acrocephalus warblers seem particularly adept at mimicry, at least the Palearctic species with which I am familiar personally. But pretty much all passerines indulge in this to a greater or lesser extent. I can recall reading this fact in the ground-breaking The Sound Approach to Birding, and, while I saw no reason to dispute the claim, it did seem excessive. After all, passerines are a large and varied group of birds, and so many of them seemed to have 'a' song, surely this was an exaggeration, right...?

Compared to the man hours that went in to making even just the initial Sound Approach book, I have spent very little time listening critically to bird sounds, and even less time recording what I hear. Accordingly, my own observations can't be taken as being a large enough sample to draw any conclusions from, but...the more I have listened, truly listened, to passerine songs, the wider the spread of species I have heard mimicry from. Some of the practitioners have been a little surprising, but the process of actually listening and discovering for oneself is very rewarding, at least to those of us who geek out over bird sounds.

One species well known as including mimicry is Common Whitethroat, and a few borrowed notes within the more ecstatic 'flight song' is well known, but, this spring, I have been surprised by some amazingly mimetic song from some perched birds, too. Perhaps this is very common, and I'd somehow managed to overlook it in the past, but I doubt that I did to any huge extent as I have always spent time with this species' song. Maybe it's commoner in areas of higher density: while I have been in England this May, I have come across higher densities of the species than in most habitats back home. Whatever the reason, it is quite fascinating, and the main catalyst for me writing this post.

During a relatively quiet visit to Spurn, Yorks last weekend, plenty of Common Whitethroats were on territory, seeming to be the commonest breeding passerine on the point. One bird, which I heard and saw on the way back, was a remarkably accomplished mimic. A recording of this bird can be found at 

Whether this bird picked up the imitations a year or more previously, as a chick in the nest, or since its return in the spring, I do not know, but it is perhaps no coincidence, given the proximity of the Humber mudflats, that this bird included mimicry of species such as Dunlin, Common Ringed Plover, Herring Gull, Common Redshank, Sandwich and Common Terns in its song. Some of the mimicry of this bird is astoundingly good, for a species not commonly thought of as more than a dilettante where copying sounds is concerned.

Common Redshank mimicry from a Common Whitethroat at Spurn, 18th May 2019,

with calls from actual Common Redshank at Kilnsea Wetlands the same day for comparison.

Common Ringed Plover call mimicry by a Common Whitethroat Spurn, 18th May.

Dunlin call mimicry by a Common Whitethroat Spurn, 18th May.

Lastly, a flashback to 2008, a time when I didn't own any sound recording equipment and so I had to capture this (poor quality) recording with my digital camera. I certainly don't think of European Greenfinch as much of a mimic even now, but, on 26th March 2008, this male on the outskirts of Cork city surprised me with decent (if not perfect) mimicry of Common Chaffinch song! 

So, for those of you who record bird sounds, or just listen intently, beware the unexpected, and maybe an otherwise quiet day in the field will be spiced up by some particularly convincing or surprising mimicry, from even the seemingly least likely of sources.