GRAY CATBIRD

The 'Gray Catbird' ('''Dumetella carolinensis'''^[1])
is a medium-sized perching bird of the mimid family and the only member of New World catbird genus '''Dumetella'''. Like the Black Catbird, it is among the basal lineages of the Mimidae.{{cite journal | author = Hunt, Jeffrey S. | coauthor = Bermingham, Eldredge; & Ricklefs, Robert E. | year = 2001 | title = Molecular systematics and biogeography of Antillean thrashers, tremblers, and mockingbirds (Aves: Mimidae) | journal = Auk | volume = 118 | issue = 1 | pages = 35–55 | id = {{cite journal | author = Barber, Brian R. | coauthor = Martínez-Gómez, Juan E. & Peterson, A. Townsend | year = 2004 | title = Systematic position of the Socorro mockingbird ''Mimodes graysoni'' | journal = J. Avian Biol. | volume = 35 | pages = 195-198 | id =
Adults are dark gray with a slim, black bill and dark eyes. They have a long dark tail, dark legs and a dark cap; they are rust-colored underneath their tail.
Their breeding habitat is semi-open areas with dense, low growth across most of North America. They are found in urban, suburban, and rural habitats. They build a bulky cup nest in a shrub or tree, close to the ground. Eggs are light blue in color, and clutch size ranges from 1-5, with 2-3 eggs most common. Both parents take turns feeding the young birds.
They migrate to the southeastern United States, Mexico and Central America. Outram Bangs and Thomas S. Bradlee (1901) described the smaller Bermudian birds, which have narrow and shorter tail feathers and primaries as ''bermudianus'', but this species was never widely accepted. Gray Catbirds were once very common in Bermuda, but their numbers have been greatly reduced in recent years by deforestation and nest predation by introduced species (including the Great Kiskadee and the European Starling). They are extremely rare vagrants to western Europe.
These birds forage on the ground in leaf litter. They mainly eat insects and berries.
In the United States, this species receives special legal protections under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

Contents

Song and calls

Interesting catbird facts

References

External links

Song and calls

The catbird is named for its cat-like call but, like many members of the Mimidae family, it also mimics the songs of other birds. A catbird's song is easily distinguished from that of the Northern Mockingbird or Brown Thrasher because the mockingbird repeats phrases 3–4 times, and the brown thrasher usually repeats each phrase twice, whereas the catbird sings each phrase only once. The catbird's song is usually described as more raspy and less musical than a mockingbird.
The catbird produces a variety of calls, including the familiar ones resembling a cat's meow, as well as an alarm call which resembles the quiet quacking of a male mallard.
In contrast to many songbirds which choose a prominent perch from which to sing, the catbird often chooses to sing from inside a bush or small tree, where they are obscured from view by the foliage.

Interesting catbird facts

Gray catbirds, like most other song birds has a type of vocal apparatus called the syrinx. This unusual structure not only allows them to make mewing sounds like that of a cat but also allows them to imitate other birds, tree frogs, and even mechanical sounds that they hear. The song bird syrinx also allows them to sing in two voices at once.
Gray catbirds are not afraid of predators and respond to them aggressively by flashing their wings and tails and by making their signature mew sounds. They are also known to even attack and peck predators that come too near their nests.
They also will destroy eggs of the Brown-headed Cowbird laid in their nests by pecking it.

References

1. Etymology: ''Dumetella'', from the Latin term for a small bramble thicket. ''carolinensis'', Latin for "from the Carolinas".

External links

★ The Original Description and Author of the genus Dumetella

★ Gray Catbird Species Account - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

★ Gray Catbird - Dumetella carolinensis - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter

★ Gray Catbird Information and Photos - South Dakota Birds and Birding

★ Bermuda Online: Bermudian Fauna.

★ Catbird (BirdHouses101.com)

★ Life Histories of Familiar North American Birds: Gray Catbird.

★ Grey Catbird stamps

★ Grey Catbird videos on the Internet Bird Collection