Chalk-browed Mockingbird: how to recognise it
A bird of South America. Learn the marks that make it easy to identify, then practise with real photographs in Lore.
Practise with real photosAll species guides
Photo © Quentin Vandemoortele · CC BY-NC · iNaturalist · all photo credits
- Scientific name
- Mimus saturninus
- Family
- Mockingbirds and Thrashers
- Size
- About 26 cm
- Habitat
- Gardens, fields and open scrub
- Found in
- South America
The key marks
Brownish-grey above with a bold white eyebrow, a dark line through the eye, white underparts and a long tail tipped with white. Northern Mockingbird is plain grey, lacks the dark eye line and shows white wing patches.
Voice
A long, mixed song of rich whistles, trills and mimicry.
Good to know
It sings from fences and bushes in gardens and fields of southern South America and mimics other sounds.
Do not confuse with
Compare it with the Northern Mockingbird. Look at the marks above one by one rather than the overall colour, and practise telling the two apart with real photos.
Where and when
You can expect to find it in gardens, fields and open scrub. It is especially common in Argentina and Brazil. Distribution changes with the seasons and from year to year, so check a recent local observation source before you go looking.