Northern Mockingbird

The Northern Mockingbird is very common in Kentucky, and the mockingbird has come to symbolize everything from human innocence in Harper Lee's novel To Kill A Mockingbird to a bribe to get a crying baby to quiet down in the lullaby Hush Little Baby. Northern Mockingbirds have been recorded to have had hundreds of various songs covering anything from other birds, insects, even car alarms. Despite Harper Lee's portrayal of mockingbirds as symbolizing innocence, mockingbirds are fiercely territorial, attacking most anything including humans to maintain dominion in the region around their nests. As much as I enjoy listening to mockingbirds, I tend to see them to symbolize a loss of identity. Mockingbirds have many calls, and parrot the songs and noises in their environment accurately enough that other bird species believe the song is of another of its kind. Yet, the identity of a mockingbird apart from its mocking is lost. The mockingbird sings the songs of others, yet has no song of its own.