Melanotis caerulescens
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The blue mockingbird (Melanotis caerulescens) is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is endemic to Mexico, but has occurred as a vagrant in the southern United States. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, and heavily degraded former forest.
The blue mockingbird is uniformly blue on its back, tail, wings, head and underbelly. This color is a result of feather structure rather than pigment, and therefore can look gray in the shade. It has a black "mask" surrounding its reddish-brown eyes. It has a rather long, slightly graduated tail, and dark blue streaks over its breast. Its bill is long, thin and slightly curved, and its legs and feet are black.
When he first described the blue mockingbird in 1827, William Swainson assigned it to the mockingbird Orpheus, and when Orpheus became a junior synonym for the genus Mimus, the species was moved accordingly. Not all authorities agreed; several placed it in the thrush Turdus. However, when Charles Lucien Bonaparte moved it to its current genus Melanotis in 1850, most authorities quickly followed suit. There is disagreement as to whether it is monotypic... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 2 | Cumbres de Monterrey National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guadalajara | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 2 | León | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 3 | Mexico City | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 4 | Puebla | 🇲🇽 México |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Blue Mockingbird sighting in León on a given day, based on 14 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 67th most-seen of the 124 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Blue Mockingbird in León on a given day, against about 10% in February–March, May, July and September–November, the lowest months. That is one of León's driest months, with about 5 mm of rain against 170 mm in July. June has too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blue Mockingbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 4
Of the 4 cities where we can rate Blue Mockingbird sightings, León ranks 2nd at about 20%. The best odds are in Guadalajara (México, about 40%).
Same family: Mimidae
The closest relatives of the Blue Mockingbird that you can see in León (family Mimidae, Mockingbirds and Thrashers) are Curve-billed Thrasher (about 30%) and Northern Mockingbird (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blue Mockingbird is recorded against all the birds logged in León (14 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
