Nor is the catbird dull in disposition. Quite the contrary. The catbird is an inquisitive bird. Its preferred habitat is low shrubbery adjacent to open spaces. This combination exists in many backyards and gardens, and the catbird is a favorite of gardeners and backyard birders.
One such backyard birder is Cindy, and this column is for you. You know who you are, and so do I. You are the first person to request a column about a specific bird species in the 39 years I’ve been writing this column. In a “big news week” in the birding world, one that brought orioles, grosbeaks, hummingbirds and a variety of warblers into our area, your request propelled the catbird to status as “bird of the week.”
Of course, it helps that the catbird is a favorite of mine. The company of catbirds has enlivened many hours of garden labor at our place west of Gilby, N.D.
If it were left to me, I might designate the catbird as the honorary avian emblem of our place. That decision, however, falls to Suezette, my life partner, who opted for the brown thrasher the first summer we lived out here. The thrasher is much less common at our place than the catbird, and for several years, I had thought it might be declining in frequency or might even have forsaken us. I blamed myself for over-energetic pruning. This year, however, the thrashers are back, and they’ve been hanging around. This raises hope that they may nest here this season.
There is little corresponding doubt about catbirds. They’ve been here every summer since 1997, the year of the flood, when we bought the place and began imagining what we might make of it. Catbird habitat was among my priorities. In some ways, I succeeded too well. Catbirds settled in my raspberry patch, even building nests among the bushes. This made foraging extremely easy for catbirds, and they often beat me to the choicest of the berries.
The catbird is almost monochromatic, an undifferentiated shade of gray, except for a black cap and – this is diagnostic in identifying catbirds – a reddish patch below the tail, “the undertail coverts,” as the guidebooks call this area. The only other bird so uniformly gray is the American robin, which is so familiar that it is not likely to be confused with a catbird, except possibly from the rear. From front or side, the robin shows off its brick red breast. Viewed from behind, robins show more variety in the gray color in their plumage; unlike the catbird, the robin is a rich and subtle gray color, varying in intensity from quite pale to very deep gray.
Another clue when looking at a uniformly gray bird is the tail. Catbirds use their tails, often spreading them out so they appear wedge-shaped. For robins, the tail seems rather more of a brace than an item of display. For display, robins have their red breasts. Those “coverts” are the only red spot on the catbird.
The primary display activity among catbirds, however, is vocalization, and in this they truly do excel. Their vocal array is wider than the brown thrasher, another of the mimids, and rivals the mockingbird – although mockingbirds often repeat recognizable calls of other birds. Catbirds are more creative, in a manner of speaking. Their vocalizations are a mash-up of other bird calls, catlike noises and even some imitations of mechanical sounds. Catbirds are especially vocal in the morning, somewhat less so in the evening. Afternoons, they are mainly silent, hidden away in some overgrown spot.
This is the third time in six years that the gray catbird has been “bird of the week.” This previously happened June 29, 2019, and May 29, 2016.
Jacobs is a retired publisher and editor of the Herald. Reach him at mjacobs@polarcomm.com.
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Always in Season/ Mike Jacobs: Catbird repeats as 'bird of the week' - Grand Forks Herald
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