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Who's Kenn? Simply put, Kenn is��a national treasure. A��renowned birder, author,��and conservationist, Kenn Kaufman��has spent his life dedicated to observing birds, reading about birds, writing about birds, and sharing��the world of birds with others. With all that birdy knowledge in his brain, he also acts as the field editor for�����ܻ�ܲ��Dz���magazine. So, whenever we have a bird question stumping us around the office, we just ask Kenn. And now you can, too! If you have a bird or birding question you'd like Kenn to answer, leave them in the comments on Facebook or send us an email. Maybe next month you'll get the kind of thorough, thoughtful, and even humorous response from Kenn we've grown so fond of over the years.��—The Editors��
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And as the fame of this cardinal spread,��and the public became aware of its special status,��other people started reporting that they had seen such birds as well. What would have merited a shrug and��a��“Hmm, that’s funny” in the past had now been anointed as worthy of note, worth sharing on social media.

Is there a conservation angle to this story? It’s always a good thing when people pay more attention to birds, of course. But the Northern Cardinal is one of the more abundant birds in North��America. Its population��has been��estimated at more than��100 million, and stable or increasing. But there is a South American bird actually named the����(Gubernatrix��cristata). It’s not��at all��related (it belongs��to the tanager family), and far from being abundant, ����’s considered an endangered species, with a population in the low thousands at best. Maybe we could figure out a way for fans of yellow cardinals in the U.S. to support conservation of Yellow Cardinals in South America.����

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Q: Why do birds imitate other birds and sounds? And why are certain��birds such better��mimics than others?��

KK:��Skill at imitating��sounds is widespread among��various groups of��birds. Although��the Northern Mockingbird is famed, and named, for this ability,������’s hardly the only��mimic out there.��Blue Jays can do a perfect rendition of a Red-tailed Hawk, and Steller’s Jays can nail the Red-shouldered Hawk.��Lesser Goldfinches mimic parts of the songs of dozens of other birds; Lawrence’s Goldfinches might��mimic fewer kinds of birds, but with higher quality imitations.��A male European Starling can��include imitations of more than 60 other bird species (and other sounds) in its repertoire.����

Many species of parrots have an outstanding ability to copy human speech,��but in the wild, they seem to use their mimicking powers mostly to imitate members of their own species, not other kinds of birds. On the other hand, some birds are virtuosos of��copying��everything within earshot. The Superb Lyrebird in Australia, for example,��can perform highly accurate imitations of dozens of other bird species and of numerous other sounds—including, sadly, even the noise��of chain saws destroying its habitat.����

But my favorite mimic is Lawrence’s Thrush, a drab brown bird of the lowland rain forest in South America. At dawn��in��southeastern Peru, I have listened��in awe��as a Lawrence’s Thrush, hidden in the treetops,��reeled off brief but perfect imitations of��more than��a dozen different birds in rapid succession. In the same region, the late Ted Parker once recorded a male that included imitations of��no fewer than��51 bird species in a single continuous bout of singing.����

These are extreme examples ,and most birds don’t make any sounds that we would recognize as mimicry. But the ability to hear a sound and copy it is actually very widespread among birds. In fact, ����’s essential.��Among the true songbirds, as well as parrots and hummingbirds, individuals have to��learn��their songs. Studies on many species suggest that they are born with a basic template for the song of their own kind, but unless they actually hear it, they will never learn to sing it correctly. So a certain level of copying is present, and even necessary,��in a vast array of different birds.����

The majority of these birds use this ability only to copy others of their own kind—faithfully claiming the vocal identity of their species,��learning the local dialect, or matching songs with their neighbors. So why do a few species take it��to a different level, appropriating songs from��other birds and��copying��sounds from the environment?����

Bird songs serve two main purposes:��Defending territory and attracting (or maintaining contact with) a mate.��An impressive song, like colorful plumage or fancy display postures,��can serve as a way of signaling��an individual’s��fitness—fit��to hold a territory against all rivals, fit to be an excellent��mate.��Of course, different species will have different��instincts as to what constitutes an��impressive song. For some, the��size of the repertoire is key: The bird that can sing the most��different songs will be perceived��as superior.��And what easier way to add to the playlist than simply copying any sound you hear?����

Ultimately, however, we don’t know why this vocal behavior evolves in some species and not others. We might imagine that Lawrence’s Thrush developed great mimicry to make up for its plain��appearance, but several related South American thrushes are equally dull-colored, and they don’t mimic sounds. We could��guess��that this behavior is tied to certain habitats, but excellent mimics are found everywhere, from dense rain forest to deserts. So far, no one has come up with a��convincing��common thread that would link all the great bird mimics of the world, and this would be an absorbing mystery for someone to solve in the future.��

Have a bird or birding��question for Kenn? Email it to��audubonmagazine@audubon.org.����