Male birds sitting at the top of the tree in broad daylight, visible to the hawks and other predators that might pick them off, are saying to the female (to put it in anthropomorphic terms), ‘Here I can sing boldly, loudly, and have all these different imitative sounds.’ They’re basically boasting: ‘Look how well I can sing. Look how well I can imitate. Choose me.’” The mockingbird’s Paganini performance with puffed-out chest is one big emphatic come-on, a “Hey, babe, check me out.”
