Tropical Mockingbird

Adult tropical mockingbirds are 23 to 25.5 cm (9.1 to 10.0 in) long. The mean weights of various subspecies vary greatly. Adults of the nominate subspecies are gray on the head and upper parts and have a whitish supercilium and a dark stripe through the eye. The underparts are off-white and the wings are blackish with two white wing bars and white edges to the flight feathers. They have a long dark tail with white feather tips, a slim black bill with a slight downward curve and long dark legs. Juveniles are browner and their chest and flanks have dusky streaks. The subspecies vary in overall size and the length of wings and tail, the intensity of their plumage colors, the extent of pale markings, and eye color. M. g. magnirostris is the largest and has a significantly heavier bill than the others; M. g. tolimensis is also larger than the nominate.

The subspecies of the tropical mockingbird are distributed thus:

M. g. gracilis, southern Mexico south to Honduras and El Salvador M. g. leucophaeus, the Yucatán Peninsula and Cozumel and other offshore islands M. g. antillarum, the Lesser Antilles from Antigua south M. g. tobagensis, Trinidad and Tobago M. g. rostratus, southern Caribbean islands from Aruba east to Blanquilla M. g. melanopterus, northern and northeastern Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, and Brazil's Roraima state M. g. gilvus, Suriname and French Guiana M. g. tolimensis, western and central Colombia south to extreme northern Ecuador; El Salvador to Panama M. g. antelius, coastal northeastern and eastern Brazil south to Rio de Janeiro state M. g. magnirostris, San Andrés Island off eastern Nicaragua The population of M. g. tolimensis in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama are descendants of escaped cage birds imported from Colombia. The tropical mockingbird is common in most open habitats, including around human habitation. Examples include scrublands, savannas, parks, and farmlands. It avoids closed forests and mangroves. It is a bird of the lowlands to middle elevations; it reaches about 2,500 m (8,200 ft) in Central American and the northern Andes. It has been found as high as 2,600 m (8,500 ft) in Colombia and 3,100 m (10,200 ft) in northern Ecuador.

The tropical mockingbird forages on the ground or low in vegetation; it also captures flying insects such as swarming termites on the wing. It is omnivorous; its diet includes a variety of arthropods (such as spiders, grasshoppers, and beetles), seeds, small fruits and berries, larger cultivated fruits (such as mangoes and sapodillas), lizards, bird and lizard eggs, the contents of bird feeders, and human food.