How does a mockingbird manage to sing while flying?

DEAR JOAN>> This spring, as last year, I am blessed to have a mockingbird hanging out around my front yard, singing his little heart out in search of a mate. Last year, I saw him do something that amazed me, and I’ve seen it this year too. This little guy can fly and sing at the same time, with no apparent degradation of either activity. I would equate this, roughly, to an operatic tenor singing an aria while furiously pedaling a bicycle!

I don’t think a human could do that. How can a little bird fly and sing at the same time? Thanks for any explanation you can provide.

— Joe Lorino, San Jose

AIAR JOI >> Birds are amazing creatures and I’m not at all sure we appreciate them enough.

Almost all birds are capable of making sounds when they fly, but not all those sounds are classified as songs. Some birds communicate with each other or give warnings when on the wing — think of the ear-piercing and bone chilling scream of a barn owl in flight. These are calls, however, not songs.

Some songbirds, however, have flight songs, and mockingbirds are within that group.

How they do it is a lot easier to explain than why they do it, which I’m just going to say is because they can. Maybe they’re like us and want a little music when they travel.

The how is because birds produce sound differently than we do. They have a special organ called the syrinx, which is found at the very top of the birds’ windpipe where the trachea splits into two bronchial tubes. In songbirds, each side of the syrinx is independently controlled, which is how they can produce two unrelated pitches at once, and how they can sing while in flight without getting breathless.

AIARJOAN>> I have a question about squirrel habits.

We have squirrels that continue to try to chew on our deck overhang. I have put a covering of wire mesh and a container of mothballs with vent holes, but they continue to come and try to chew.

I was wondering if they spray the area or secrete some pheromones.

They wake us up many mornings, and before putting the wire mesh in place, they were quite destructive. I saw your column about putting out a big cow bone for them to chew, but I’m not sure I want to do that.

— Tim CochrAne,

WAlnut Creek

AIAR TI >> Squirrels, and all rodents, have the need to chew on things to keep their teeth filed down. If they didn’t, their teeth would continue to grow, eventually piercing their lower jaws.

There are no pheromones or secret squirrel sauce; there is only opportunity. Apparently, your deck overhang was the perfect gnawing spot, likely close to their nests and offering some good chewing. When you put the mesh over it, you made it harder from them to chew, but it didn’t take away their desire to gnaw on it.

You need something more impenetrable, such as metal flashing that covers the wood completely. Alternatively, you can spray the wood with hot pepper sauce or peppermint oil, but the mothballs probably don’t bother them.

I’d also suggest giving them something else to chew on, such as a large bone or a pile of lumber. You can’t stop the gnawing, but you can direct where they do it.