Northern Mockingbird

How to find it

Because the official list codes it A, treat any Northern Mockingbird in Costa Rica as an unusual find rather than a target. Range-wide, it sings most strongly around morning twilight and often calls at night. Listening for a song that imitates many birds at once is a good way to find it first. Then scan tall shrubs, poles and utility lines, and mowed lawns where it runs or hops. Check the bird itself before naming it.

How to recognise it

The Northern Mockingbird is soft grey with a long tail. Learn these marks:

Thin white wing bars.

Large white wing patches that show in flight.

White outer tail feathers, with two white stripes along the tail.

Range-wide, on the ground it darts about, stops, and raises its wings to flash those white patches, so the wing flash is often the quickest clue. It also sits high on tall shrubs, poles or utility lines, where the pale grey body and long tail stand out, and it runs or hops along mowed lawns.

What it sounds like

Recording: Pablo F. Domínguez, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Range-wide, it is bold and territorial, and it sings almost endlessly, sometimes at night. It harasses intruders by flying slowly around them or prancing toward them with legs extended, showing off its bright white wing patches.

A male that starts singing from a high perch flies up in a short circle with wings spread, then lands without breaking the song. While feeding it often flashes its white wing patches in a two-step wing lift that works as a territory display. It swoops down to catch prey and leaps into the air for low flying insects.

Where it lives

Range-wide, its habitat is towns, and it is often found in urban areas. It is a ground forager that nests in shrubs. In Oaxaca, Mexico, one bird was caught in regrowing scrub and natural grassland next to farm plots, where small insects and native fruits were linked to its presence. Its normal range is North America, the Caribbean and Mexico. It is not described as a regular Costa Rican bird.

Similar birds

The Tropical Mockingbird is the similar species, coded R, and it is the widespread mockingbird that birders see in Costa Rica. Because a Northern Mockingbird copies many species, a voice alone can mislead you. A study outside Costa Rica found that its mimicry caused about 31 percent of false positive IDs in one bird-ID app.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Spanish name on the Costa Rican list is Pájaro-imitador Norteño. Elsewhere people say sinsonte norteño or cenzontle, and in Puerto Rico it is called ruiseñor. Other regional names include sinsonte in Cuba, ruiseñor in the Dominican Republic, and centzontle norteño or cenzontle aliblanco in Mexico. Cenzontle comes from Náhuatl and is said to mean "four hundred voices", a nod to its mimicry; this is Mexican lore, not Costa Rican. The scientific name polyglottos is Greek for many tongues, and Mimus is Latin for imitator.

Status and conservation

The official AOCR list gives the Northern Mockingbird status code A, the only one of Costa Rica's three mimids with that code.

Photography tips

Look for it sitting high on tall shrubs, poles or utility lines, where it is easiest to frame. On the ground it darts about, stops, and raises its wings to flash large white patches before lunging at flushed insects, so watch for that pause. Finding the singer first by ear is a good start.