Gray Catbird
Gray Catbird
Dumetella carolinensis
At a Glance
Rather plain but with lots of personality, the Gray Catbird often hides in the shrubbery, making an odd variety of musical and harsh sounds -- including the catlike mewing responsible for its name. At other times it moves about boldly in the open, jerking its long tail expressively. Most catbirds winter in the southern United States or the tropics, but a few linger far to the north if they have access to a reliable source of berries or a well-stocked bird feeder.
All bird guide text and rangemaps adapted from by Kenn Kaufman© 1996, used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Category
Mockingbirds and Thrashers, Perching Birds
IUCN Status
Least Concern
Habitat
Fields, Meadows, and Grasslands, Forests and Woodlands, Freshwater Wetlands, Shrublands, Savannas, and Thickets, Urban and Suburban Habitats
Region
California, Eastern Canada, Florida, Great Lakes, Mid Atlantic, New England, Northwest, Plains, Rocky Mountains, Southeast, Southwest, Texas, Western Canada
Behavior
Direct Flight, Flitter
Population
29.000.000
Range & Identification
Migration & Range Maps
Apparently migrates mostly at night. Birds breeding in the Northwest migrate east before turning south in the fall and are rarely seen in the Southwest.
Description
Sexes similar — Length: 8–9 in (21–24 cm); wingspan: 9–12 in (22–30 cm); weight: 1–2 oz (23–57 g). The Gray Catbird is smooth gray all over, with a black cap and chestnut undertail coverts. Slim and long-tailed; often flips tail about expressively.
Size
About the size of a Robin
Color
Black, Gray, Orange, Red
Wing Shape
Broad
Tail Shape
Rounded, Square-tipped
Songs and Calls
A long, irregular succession of musical and mechanical notes and phrases; a cat-like mewing. Sometimes seems to mimic other birds.
Call Pattern
Falling, Flat, Undulating
Call Type
Chatter, Chirp/Chip, High, Scream, Whistle
Habitat
Undergrowth, brush, thorn scrub, suburban gardens. In all seasons, the Gray Catbird prefers dense, low-growing vegetation. Most common in leafy thickets along the edges of woods and streams, shrubby swamps, overgrown brushy fields, and hedges in gardens. Avoids unbroken forest and coniferous woods.
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Behavior
Eggs
4, sometimes 3-5, rarely 2-6. Greenish blue, rarely with some red spots. Incubation is by female only, about 12-13 days.
Young
Both parents feed the nestlings. Young leave the nest about 10-11 days after hatching. 2 broods per year.
Feeding Behavior
The Gray Catbird does much of its foraging on the ground, flipping leaves aside with its bill as it seeks insects. Feeds on berries up in shrubs and trees.
Diet
Mostly insects and berries. Especially in early summer, the Gray Catbird consumes a wide range of insects, including beetles, ants, caterpillars, grasshoppers, crickets, true bugs, and other insects, as well as spiders and millipedes. Nestlings are fed almost entirely on insects. More than half the annual diet of adults may be vegetable matter, especially in fall and winter, when they eat many kinds of wild berries and some cultivated fruit. Rarely catches small fish. They have been recorded eating a bizarre assortment of items, including doughnuts, cheese, boiled potatoes, and corn flakes.
Nesting
Early in the breeding season, the male Gray Catbird sings constantly in the morning and evening, sometimes at night. Courtship may involve the male chasing the female, posturing, and bowing with wings drooped and tail raised. The male may face away from the female to show off the patch of chestnut under his tail. When Brown-headed Cowbirds lay eggs in nests of this species, the cowbird eggs are usually punctured and ejected by the adult Gray Catbirds. Nest: Placed in dense shrubs, thickets, briar tangles, or low trees, usually 3-10' above the ground. Nest (built mostly by females) is a large, bulky cup of twigs, weeds, grass, leaves, and sometimes pieces of trash, lined with rootlets and other fine materials.
Conservation
Conservation Status
Populations seem to have been increasing in recent decades across the East.
Climate Threats Facing the Gray Catbird
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.
