Hello and welcome.

This is the Science of Birds.

I am your host, Ivan Philipson.

The Science of Birds podcast is a lighthearted exploration of bird biology for lifelong learners.

This is episode 124.

It's all about birds in the family, Mimidi.

These are the mockingbirds, thrashers, catbirds, and tremblers.

There are 35 species overall.

This family is restricted to the New World, to North, Central, and South America.

Some of these songbirds are familiar backyard visitors.

In North America, these include the Northern Mockingbird,

brown thrasher, and gray catbird. The tropical mockingbird and chalk-browed mockingbird

are familiar urban and suburban birds in South America. The Northern Mockingbird is so well-loved

and well-known that it is the official state bird of Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas.

So I'll have to dedicate an entire podcast episode to the Northern Mockingbird at some point.

But for today, we're doing an overview of all the mimids, all the species belonging to the

family, Mimidi. To choose the topic of this episode, I sent out a poll to the members of my

Patreon community. They got to vote on it. The choices were Mimidi or sternity. Sternadie. Sternadie is the family of the starlings.

Now these are both wonderful and fascinating groups of birds,

and both are known for their spectacular singing abilities.

But in this head-to-head showdown, in the poll,

the Mimids beat out the sternids,

...