Naturalist: Habitat of Mockingbirds

Contrary to the title, I WON'T go into Mockingbirds first. Lets start with the Bluejays. (Note, every info here is from a book dedicated to the study of birds, not any website you see online).

Bluejays (Cyanocitta cristata)

Skipping the unnecessary info for this study...

Very bold and noisy; hops rapidly from branch to branch

Eats fruits, seeds, insects and other invertebrates, small mammals lizards nestling birds and eggs, and carrion

Habitat areas are in wooded areas, including forest or parks


Moving on to the Northern Mockingbird, we can see the habitat of the neighbourhood Scout & Jem lives in. Then, we'll compare the plants Miss Maudie Atkinson, (presumely) Mayella Ewell and Mrs. Layafette Dubose grows in comparision to climate, and habitat, and the possibility should there be an inaccuracy in Nelle Harper Lee's book for its habitat and... etc.

Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)

Feeds on lawns, vigorous defender of territory and food sources (Atticus is completely wrong; the mockingbird don't do one thing but to sing their hearts out; they feed on the Dubose, the Radley's lawn, and maybe Maudie had some difficulty chasing the birds to grow her flowers)

Diets on fruit, insects, worms, and occasionally small lizards (This can validate part of Atticus' saying. The bird certainly doesn't give trouble to the people who grow flowers. They don't eat flowers.)

Habitat areas include parks, thckets, woodland edges and suburbs.

Both reside in the Southeastern United States. So we can see that the community Scout & Jem lives in is at one edge of the town; a suburb. This shows that Maycomb may be a far larger town, or more isolated than it seems, as it takes Atticus only 2 miles to go into town proper; compared to 20 miles to work for those living in Montgomery participating in the Montgomery bus boycott.

2: Dubose and her Camellia

Well, it seems confusing, as there's two camelias. One is the green tea leaves kind of camelia (that's called camelia) and the Snow-on-the-Mountain (Euphorbia marginata) that is in temperate US. Of course its the latter.

It is however, small and numerous, and Jem could not have destroyed ALL of Dubose's camelias. However, since Dubose can afford to give her prized Snow-on-the-Mountain, it is definitely not a plant in which has only one flower, and thus the description by the scientific community perfectly fits Nelle Harper Lee's or vice versa (which is more logical).

Now, about Maudie Atkinson and her azaleas. Azaleas can be grown also everywhere, and Wikipedia says Mobile and Dothan, cities in Alabama has festivals. This makes her azaleas compatible in Maycomb's habitat.

Nutgrass (Cyperus rotundus) also fits in the description, as it spreads from Florida to New England.

Lastly, we have to check Mayella Ewell's geranium. However, the variety includes 522 exotic plant species, and it is impossible to check as it was only called geranium. Although it is noted that geranium in the world is usually attributed to geranium pelargonium, the pelargonium sub-type includes 200 exotic species.

Thus, it can be said, that mockingbirds live in Maycomb for its variety, and Nelle Harper Lee has been careful to make sure that all info on the habitat is perfectly correct.