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Once, there lived two Mockingbirds. They had 

wonderful voices and sang beautiful melodies 

together.

It was only natural for the two best singers in the 

woods to discover each other, and together they made 

even more fantastic songs.

It wasn’t long before the two Mockingbirds decided to 

get married and build a nest together. The birds 

searched for a long time to find just the right tree. They 

flew into tall pines and big oaks and even old, hollow 

trees, but none of them felt right.

Mother Bird said, “The nest must be safe. I don’t want 

other birds to bother my babies.”

Father Bird said, “It must be hidden in the leaves and 

pine needles so the other birds can’t see it. And I will 

perch high in a tall tree and keep guard.”

They flew around for a few days, and at last they found 

the right tree.

Mother Bird said, “This tree is just perfect. Not too high. 

Not too low.”

“And it looks very safe,” Father Bird said. “There is a tall 

tree where I can keep watch over you and the babies.”

They started to work. They collected small twigs and 

wove them together into a basket. And when they were 

almost finished they found some moss to line the inside 

of the basket so that their eggs wouldn't fall out. At last 

they were finished, and Mother Mockingbird burst into 

another one of her beautiful songs.

“You do have a lovely voice,” Father Mockingbird told 

her. “I love it when you sing like that.”

“I sing because I’m happy,” she trilled as she settled 

down in the nest. “Now it’s time to lay some eggs.”

“I’ll be back soon,” Father Bird said. “Can I bring you 

anything?”

“Why, thank you. A fat, juicy worm would be delightful,” 

she said. “I like the green caterpillars.”

As soon as he flew away, Mother Bird closed her eyes 

and laid a beautiful, little yellow egg. She looked at it in 

amazement because it was the first egg she had ever 

laid.

“Aren’t you the most beautiful thing?” she said, proud 

of the egg. And during the next hour she laid two more, 

so now she had three beautiful, yellow eggs. Inside 

each one was a baby bird, just waiting to hatch.

“Whew,” she said. “I’m exhausted. I need a drink of 

water.” So she flew down to the stream to get a drink.

When she arrived back at the nest, she was surprised to 

see four eggs. "Maybe I counted wrong," she thought to 

herself. "I could have sworn there were three."

Father Bird flew in with a huge, wriggling, juicy worm. 

“I hope you’re hungry,” he said. “This worm was so heavy I 

had to stop twice to rest.”

“Oh, boy, am I hungry,” Mother Bird said. “I never knew 

having babies was so much work. Want to see our eggs?” 

She hopped out of the nest so he could take a look.

“They’re very pretty,” he said with a worried expression, 

“but they’re so small. I don’t see how a bird could fit 

into a tiny egg like that.”

“Well, trust me,” Mother Bird said, preening her 

feathers. “Soon we’ll have four babies, and they will 

keep you busy catching caterpillars. By the way, would 

you like to sit on these eggs for a few minutes? We 

have to keep them warm, you know.”

“Oh, no,” he said. “I’m way too heavy. I might break 

one. You’d better do the sitting, and I’ll go out for 

meals.”

Mother Bird smiled and sang one of her beautiful 

melodies. The Mockingbirds were very happy.

Every day she took care of the eggs, keeping them 

warm and turning them over. One day she heard a tiny 

noise inside an egg. She put her ear close and listened. 

Peck. Peck. Peck. It was one of her babies trying to get 

out of the egg.

Slowly, it pecked its way around the top of the egg. 

When it had pecked all the way around in a circle, 

Mother Bird saw a little head pop out. It didn’t have any 

feathers. It was all beak and eyes, and she jumped 

back in alarm.

“Are you sure you’re my baby?” she asked. 

“Chirp, chirp,” the Baby Bird answered, which means, 

“Of course, Mama.”

“I’ll name you Frank,” she said.''When the others are 

born I'll give you all your very own bow.

In a few hours, all the babies had pecked their way out of their 

shells and all were chirping and crying for food. She named them 

Randy, Sandy, and Mandy. Soon after she gave them all their very 

own bows. Except for Frank.

“Oh, dear,” Mother Bird said. “You are all so noisy. Please be quiet.” 

But the baby birds wouldn’t be quiet. They chirped some more and 

grew louder and louder. Soon they were jumping up and down, and 

Mother Bird got very upset.

“All right, all right, I’ll go shopping for bugs for you, but you have 

to be quiet while I’m gone. If you make any noise, something 

might get you.”

With that, all the babies grew quiet. They sat back down in the 

nest to wait for their mother to return with food.

The minute she appeared, they all jumped up and started chirping 

again. They held their little mouths open wide, and she fed each 

one a bite of worm. Every time they ate they were quiet for a 

minute or so before they started to chirp again. And off she flew 

to bring them food. Father Bird helped, too, but even with both 

parents working hard, the babies still cried for more.

“Whew, I’m very tired,” Mother Bird said after she delivered the 

last bug. “It’s getting dark, so I can’t see to find bugs. Go to sleep 

and tomorrow I’ll teach you some songs.”

She had a plan. Instead of those awful, ear-splitting chirps her 

babies made, she would teach them some of her beautiful songs. 

She knew a pretty one she had learned from the Meadowlark just 

this morning.

But next morning, an interesting thing happened. At 

dawn, just as the birds were all waking up, a fire truck 

roared by. Its siren was very loud. It went, “Oooo-

rooooo-oooo-roooo.”

The next thing Mother Bird heard was four little voices 

crying, “Oooo-roooo-oooo-roooo.” They were so loud 

she put her wings over her ears. “That’s not a proper 

song,” she told her babies. Stop that noise, and I’ll go 

get some bugs.”

Just as she flew away, she heard a car engine start. 

Then she heard the sound the car makes when the 

driver doesn’t put on his seat-belt. “Beep-beep-beep-

beep.” Sure enough, she could hear her babies start to 

make the same sound.

“These babies are driving me crazy,” she said to Father 

Bird. “All those non-bird sounds. Why can’t they make 

pretty songs like we do?”

"Oh, they’re young. They’ll learn some more songs,” he 

said. “I’ll teach them a nice Mockingbird song. 

He twittered his tail sideways and opened and closed 

his wings a few times to get their attention. He puffed 

out his chest and began to sing. It was a beautiful 

melody, one he had learned from a red-winged 

blackbird.

The babies listened, but as soon as Father Bird stopped 

singing, a construction worker came up the road driving 

a bull dozer It was in low gear, so its engine went, 

“rrrrrrrrrrr”. He shifted gears, and it went 

“RRRRRRRRR.” Then a car passed the tractor and blew 

its horn to warn the farmer that it was coming by. The 

horn went “BEEEEEEP.”

Father Bird turned back to the babies and heard them 

all start to sing at once. “Oooo-rooo-oooo-roooo, Beep-

beep, RRRRRRR, Beep-beep-beep.” One baby had even 

learned the tune of a ringing telephone, and another 

made the sound of a helicopter. Of course, they were 

Frank and Randy.

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