Talented Tweeter

A few mornings ago, as I lay in bed in the early hours after the dawn chorus, I heard one of these going off:

It slowly dawned on me that it was far too quiet, and far too irregular and intermittent, to actually be a burglar alarm. It was then that I knew we had an avian mimic. I had a pretty good idea of what it might be.

In between bursts of being an alarm, it decided it was a great tit:

It was close, but you could just discern the difference. Great tits sound like a squeaky bicycle pump.

Then I realised that the song in between these impersonations was that of a blackbird:

Had I been wrong all along? Could blackbirds mimic?

Yesterday I stepped out into the garden, and suddenly realised that a blackbird was singing on next door's chimney. I turned round to look, and saw what I'd suspected was the culprit all along:

A starling was up there doing his thing. Years ago these clever little irridescent birds used to send people scampering indoors to answer their trimphones, which warbled distinctively. The starlings got them down to a T.

I haven't heard a mimic for a long time now. I just hope this one stays away from the predators long enough to pass on its skills to a few generations of young.