The Vigilant Mocking Bird

The Vigilant Mocking Bird (from the series: They Move Amongst Us)

Atticus Finch tells his children that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, for a mockingbird hurts no-one and brightens the world with its song. As it happens, the mockingbird is a mimicking bird that imitates the song of other birds. It thus has a range of song that other birds can only envy - and it mocks their limited repertoires. That is how it got its name.

It acquired its symbolism from Harper Lee, the author of that great American novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.” To convict an innocent from nothing more than blind prejudice is to kill a mockingbird. Unaware of the symbolic protection that humanity now affords it, the mockingbird is skittish and wary of people. It was a long time before the local mockingbird trusted the bird feeders on our deck and came to the bird bath.