Secretive grey catbird often disguises its calls

The grey catbird is a relatively large bird – about the size of a robin – with a distinctive slate-colored body, a coal-black cap on its head, and chestnut undertail feathers. But it is rarely seen much, if at all. When it does show itself, it does so briefly, then furtively dashes back to the cover of a dense thicket.

It disguises itself verbally as well. Its call note sounds like the insistent, plaintive mewing of a cat. Its song, which has been described as a “mixture of melodious, nasal, squeaky notes,” also includes a compilation of other bird’s songs, sung in repetitions of twos.

You might hear two imitations of a blue jay, followed by two imitations of a robin, then a starling, then a cardinal, and so on. This is a reliable clue that what you are hearing is a catbird, and not our more well-known mimic, the mockingbird – or one of the birds it is imitating.

Mockingbirds sing three or more repetitions of a bird’s song. Whereas the mockingbird sings its imitated phrases strongly and convincingly, the catbird almost gurgles them. Its voice has a distinctive wavering, warbling quality that is absent in the mockingbird.

A catbird will not visit bird feeders, being entirely insectivorous during the breeding season. In the fall it switches to a diet of fruit, so if you have fruiting trees and shrubs on your property you may well become host to this shy bird. Some of its favorite fruits are those of hollies and sumacs.

You won’t often find this bird in immaculately manicured landscapes. As do most other birds, it derives the greatest benefit from some neglect on your part. Overgrown hedges, thickets that are allowed to become dense and tangled, and a variety of plantings will ensure the greatest availability of food, cover, and nesting sites for many birds.

Catbirds are very sensitive to people in their vicinity, and will often sing or give their cat-like call upon approach. In this context it is an alarm call, which the bird probably intends as a warning. Instead, it only serves to draw the uninitiated closer, convinced there is a lost kitten crying there under the bushes.

What you’re more likely to find, if you’re persistent, is the catbird’s nest, which is bulky and built deep within a thicket, often less than 10 feet high. However, birds may desert the nest if you visit too often or are too persistent.

Later in the season, fledglings will be about. If you happen to be in the area, the parents will actually approach you while giving the meow-call; this is your cue to depart.

Catbirds are known to sing late into the season, but will become silent around this time as they go through a complete molt before migration. They may gather in wet, lowland areas at this time, still keeping to the cover of dense growth, their strange meow-call drifting out at dusk on the still, warm air.

NEWS bird columnist Chris Corio can be reached at bdnsports@bangordailynews.net