Bahama Mockingbird Song | ROLLING HARBOUR ABACO

BAHAMA MOCKINGBIRD: NEW SUBSPECIES FOR ABACO?

[Camera. Lights. ACTION] Attenborough, D (for it is he), off-screen, in familiar breathy tones…

“Here, deep in the impenetrable pine forests of the Abaco National Park, lives an incredible bird discovery until recently known only to four people in the world. For here, where the unique Abaco Parrots nest in their underground holes and the rare Kirtland’s Warbler continues its brave stand against extinction… here is a completely new bird subspecies that is destined to take the avian world by storm… the Red-faced Bahama Mockingbird Mimus bahamensis volvensharborii…”

I can’t keep that nonsense up for any longer, you’ll be relieved to hear… But here is the story. Woody Bracey was taking us, with his friend Bill, in search of the rare and elusive Kirtland’s Warbler, about which more soon (*Spoiler Alert* Yes, we did. Four). We had stopped the truck in a remote area of the National Park to listen for and indeed watch parrots. I was in the front of the truck, window down, listening hard when suddenly, right by us, I suddenly heard the beautiful song of a Bahama Mockingbird. Here are two recordings I made the previous year – the first is over 1 min long, the second is only 17 secs.

I grabbed my camera and started to fire away at the bird, which was perched on a dead branch just a few feet away near the edge of the track. I had no time to think about depth of field, light balance, or refrangible focus indices, I just went for it. It was Woody who first noticed the remarkable feature of this bird – its red face. It first, I thought it was just on the chin, but later I saw that the red colouring is above the beak as well.

Woody is one of the most experienced birders in the Bahamas, and he had never come across this variant before. Sometimes a bird may have white patches or some other LEUCISTIC colour variation. But red is something very different. Once we had ruled out blood (no evidence of injury) and strawberry jam (no likelihood of a propensity for sticking face in same), an altogether more exciting possibility began to emerge…

The Bahamas Birding Triumvirate will be debating this find, no doubt. Is this sort of red-faced variant found in any other bird species? Is it a one-off? Or is it perhaps one example of a small subspecies confined to Abaco or the wider Bahamas? Or does it just come from eating red berries, as in photo #3? Has anyone come across a BM like this one? Any comment welcome via the comment box or email.

This is my personal favourite pic, taken while the bird was in mid-song. I’d have liked an ‘open mouth’ shot, but frankly when you find an apparently new bird in the middle of nowhere, you can’t have everything….

Finally, you may well ask “So that’s all very well, but what does a ‘normal’ Bahama Mockingbird look like close-to?” Here’s an example for comparison

STOP PRESS (MAY 2015) The jury is back, the verdict unexciting (as I suppose was inevitable). The Bahamas Birding Sages have concluded that the red markings are simply staining from berries, as seen in #3 above. This is the obvious solution, but I am grateful to those (culminicola in the comments below, and a birding forum where this post has been discussed) who suggested the possibility of red pollen. The pine forest in which we saw this bird doesn’t in fact have flowers – or anyway red-pollened flowers – so berries must be the answer. In short, no Mimus bahamensis volvensharborii…

All photos RH, cheers to Woody for leading the trip and for spotting the unusual features of this bird PDQ

Bahama Mockingbird, Abaco – Bruce Hallett

BAHAMA MOCKINGBIRD NEST, CHICKS & FLEDGING VIDEO

I tend not to reblog other people’s posts wholesale. For a start, there can be compatibility issues that are tiresome to sort out. Often, they will include material – interesting in its own right – that is applicable to that blog but not to this one… Or it might be inappropriate to add other useful info or images. Sometimes, though, a post is perfect. This is one such time. I have recently started to follow Dominique’s blog WANDER IN NATURE, having come across her post about the Bahama Mockingbird Mimus gundlachii. The Baha Mocker is on the ‘wants list’ of any birder on Abaco. I have never seen a photo of a nest or chick before, far less seen either in real life. So here they are, not on Abaco but only a mockingbird’s flight away!

BAHAMA MOCKINGBIRD TAKES FLIGHT

JUNE 2014 Sometime in the transition between Spring and Summer, I stumbled across a bird’s nest wedged in the top corner of the rose garden. After a much needed boost, I peered in and discovered the bobbing beaks of three little nestlings, so fragile and still without their feathers.

Bahama Mockingbird Chicks (Wander in Nature)

Over the next few days, I hoped to follow their growth and capture them during feeding time with their two parents that had clearly made their presence known. One of the young birds appeared to take over the nest for a while, and eventually took flight into the big wide world.

Bahama Mockingbird Fledgling (Wander in Nature)

Bahama Mockingbird Adult & Fledgling (Wander in Nature)

Bahama Mockingbird Fledgling (Wander in Nature)

FIRST FLIGHT

The whole story is here… there’s a great deal of action at this nest!

Here are two recordings of the beautiful song of this bird that I made 18 months ago a short way down a logging track in the pine forest south of Crossing Rocks (before the Y). Note the repetition of particular phrases before the bird moves on to the next sound in its extensive repertoire.