Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Shy Gray Catbird
By: Tom Berg:
Some birds are seen but rarely heard. Others are just the opposite – heard but rarely seen! The gray catbird is one of those vocal, but very shy birds that people don’t often see. Aptly named, this gray-colored bird prefers to spend its time in thick underbrush and at least one of its many calls sounds like the lonely mew of a cat.
The gray catbird is a medium-sized songbird and is about the size of an American robin. It is a slate-gray color overall, with a black cap and a deep reddish-brown color on its rump, under the tail. It also has black eyes, a black beak and its tail fades from gray to black towards the tip of its tail.
Catbirds love thick brambles, especially those located along fencelines. Dense bushes and shrubs, particularly those that are peppered with tangled grapevines (or other vines), are the preferred home of this secretive bird. If you hear what sounds like the mew of a cat coming from inside a brushy thicket, you have likely found the hideout of a gray catbird. They also make other whistling, squeaking and chirping sounds at times, in a song that may last several minutes long.
Although insects such as ants, earwigs, caterpillars and beetles and make up the bulk of the catbird’s diet, they also like to eat fruits when they are available. Grapes, cherries, raspberries, mulberries, serviceberries and even poison ivy berries are among their favorites. Since they prefer to live in thickets where many of these types of berries grow, they usually find plenty of food to eat!
Gray catbirds are closely related to mockingbirds, so it is no surprise that they have amazing vocal skills just like their cousins. Besides their signature “mewing cat” call, catbirds are able to copy the sounds and calls of many other species of birds, often ad-libbing them together into one long, seemingly never-ending song. Sometimes they even incorporate sounds in their song that resemble human laughter!
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