Story photo by Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist

Mockingbirds are ramping up their antics. They’re more entertaining. They’re braver — landing near your feet to snag an insect from the grass, and then darting away with it clutched in their beak. And more daring — chasing larger birds, like grackles, through the air — most likely, moving the larger birds away from the mockingbirds’ nests.

Spring is bird mating season. Mockingbirds seem to be more noticeable at the mating game than other birds. Mockingbirds also can be more vocal, singing at a top decibel well into the night.

Both male and female mockingbirds sing, according to the sciencing.com website, but males increase their singing for spring breeding season. Females don’t often sing during that time, saving their repertoire of songs mostly for the fall.

The northern mockingbird is a permanent resident in Texas, Mimus polyglottos, is the species name. The name mockingbird means mimic of many tongues; true to the moniker, they’ve been known to imitate more than 30 bird songs in succession, according to gardeningforwildlife.com.

Mockingbirds do have melodic songs of their own, as well as having the ability to mimic other birds and a couple hundred different sounds, like machinery, frogs, barking dogs, door bells and sirens, according to animals.howstuffworks.com,

Most songbirds learn all the songs they’ll ever sing before they’re a year old. The mockingbird continues to expand his collection throughout his life, according to the site, birdwatching.com.

Male mockingbirds have songs for spring and songs for autumn, but nothing matches a male mockingbird regaling the quiet night-time air as he tries to attract a female for breeding — sometimes singing all night long.

Only unattached males will sing through the night.

From all those serenading male mockingbirds, females will eventually select a mate or reunite with a male from the previous season, at which time the songs are shortened and less raucous and the all night singing gigs usually stop.

“Females prefer males with a more varied set of songs, which signals experience and an established territory,” stated J. Dianne Dotson in a 2018 article for sciencing.com

The mockingbird mating season is generally April to July. An adult male may establish his breeding territory as early as February. Mockingbirds have been described as being strongly monogamous. Only the female incubates the eggs; both sexes feed their young. They may have two to three broods a year.

A unique habit of mockingbirds is that they defend two separate territories, the breeding territory, which may encompass two acres, and their fall and winter feeding territory, which is generally smaller.

Research has shown that mockingbird males also sing to advertise territorial boundaries.

Unattached male mockingbirds may keep you up during a few spring nights with their jaunty tunes, but the mockingbirds will make up for that by helping to keep your garden plucked of harmful beetles, bugs and grasshoppers. Mockingbirds also forage in the grass, shrubs and trees for insects, ants, spiders and moths. You might be able to entice them to a feeder with bread and raisins and other fruit, like apple cores.