State Birds nest in familiar plaza tree

Mockingbirds are once again nesting near the Plaza Pond in the same tree as last year.

As I write this in my office, I can see them come and go, bringing nesting material.

Is it the same pair as last year? That's hard to say. But it is the same cedar tree. The Tennessee State Bird, the Northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), is very territorial. This male has claimed the row of shrubs along the Universal Trail but his strongest defense will be saved for the actual nest tree.

Northern mockingbirds traditionally produce two broods of three to five eggs a year, but here in the warmer climes of the South they can occasionally have three or four broods.

That's a lot of new State Birds.

- Stephen Lyn Bales