Research on Mockingbird's habitat.

a. Do a research on the natural habitat of mockingbird. In your research, include the kind of flora and fauna you think exist in Maycomb and explain why the mockingbirds live in Maycomb.

What are Mockingbirds?

The state bird of Texas,Florida, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi.

They are members of the Mimidae family, a group of American passerines that also includes thrashers, tremblers, and New World catbirds. The Northern Mockingbird is the most well known representative of it's family. Northern Mockingbirds have grey tops and the underside of their wings are white in colour. There are white patches on it's wings in the shape of bars, their tails long and black, with white outer feathers.

They are often mistaken for Shrikes which are another species of birds. The mockingbird has a white patch and two white bars on each wing while a Shrike has one bar of white stripe and no white patches. This can be observed during flight. It is hard to tell between a male and a female mockingbird. Generally, mockingbirds will live for 4 to 12 years. The eggs of the birds are blue-green in nature with unusual brown markings on them. The birds make their nests low towards the ground, which is like an open cup of grass and twigs with rootlets scattered densely.

Mockingbirds can be found in most of the continental United States from southern Oregon through northern Utah to Newfoundland and south to Mexico. They live in the open grassy areas, stream side thickets, farmlands, bushes, edge of open woods and desert brush. They also dwell in gardens particularly if any winter berries are available.

I guess from here, we can picture what Maycomb County looks like in the story-various open areas, contains many shrubs and thickets, and nice and sunny. It can also be deduced that many families in Maycomb County plant many small shrubs and berry bushes in their garden- attracting Mockingbirds to the area. Mockingbirds generally live quite close with humans and share the same environments.

In the story, it's a sin to kill them as they are harmless and sing just to attract a mate. It's also well known for mimicking other bird's calls from various species! The bird can easily have 25-35 songs in its repertory. Smart bird!

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/tropical_neotropical_birds/104075
http://www.articlealley.com/article_644489_54.html
http://www.nhptv.org/NATUREWORKS/mockingbird.htm
Picture: courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife