Northern Mockingbird

Northern mockingbirds learn and reproduce the songs of hundreds of other bird species, plus sounds like car alarms, gates, and machinery. Males with larger repertoires attract more mates and defend larger territories. The mimicry demonstrates cognitive capacity and learning ability - signals that correlate with survival and parenting quality. Repertoire size becomes honest signal of underlying fitness.

This demonstrates mimicry as capacity display. The mockingbird doesn't deceive through mimicry; it demonstrates capability through variety. The more sounds accurately reproduced, the more impressive the singer. Quality shows through quantity and accuracy. This represents mimicry serving honest rather than deceptive signaling.

The business parallel applies to portfolio diversity as capability demonstration. Consulting firms showing varied client work, venture portfolios demonstrating deal diversity, creators with broad skill display - variety demonstrates capability range. Like mockingbird repertoires, diverse portfolios signal underlying capacity even when individual items aren't directly relevant.

Mockingbirds also demonstrate the nighttime signaling of unpaired males. Unmated males sing through the night - a costly behavior that mated males abandon. The nighttime singing reaches females considering mate switching. Desperate signaling intensifies when standard approaches fail - businesses similarly increase marketing intensity when facing customer deficit.