We put out our Baltimore oriole feeder this spring, festooning it with half an orange and a small dish of grape jelly to hopefully attract those beautiful orioles. We’ve seen no orioles; instead the gray catbirds are here daily enjoying the jelly. Their loud insistent calls let us know when the feeder is empty and more jelly is called for. Fortunately, we are well stocked.
Gray catbirds (dumetella carolinensis) are sleek looking birds with their soft gray coloring and black rectangular cap that tops their head. They have a rusty red patch under their tail feathers and a narrow straight black bill that serves them well in securing their favored foods, insects and fruit.
The Cornell Lab All About Birds website (AAB) reports that the songs of male catbirds, like other birds in the mimidae family (e.g., mockingbirds and brown thrashers) are made up of short notes, collected into “phrases” and that these songs can last up to 10 minutes. The songs are a menagerie of sounds. They include whistles, squeaks, gurgles, whines, and nasal tones, some of which imitate other birds as well as frogs and mechanical noises. Females also sing, but infrequently and more quietly.
It is this bird’s call that mimics the mewing of a cat that distinguishing it, and for which it is named. The first time we heard a gray catbird we were sure it was a neighbor’s cat, but no. As the calls continued and we eventually got a look at the source of the mewing, we were pleased to realize we had learned the signature call of the gray catbird.
According to Alan Haney in his book, “Jewels of Nature,” the catbird’s genus name, Dumetella, means “small thicket.” This reflects the preferred nesting habitat of the bird. They build their nests within a few feet of the ground in shrubby thickets. They also build nests within the thick cover of vines or tree branches.
Our yard has some nice woody edges due to our planting of native shrubs over the years such as dogwoods, juneberry, highbush cranberry, and elderberry. We also have a variety of trees and a healthy growth of Virginia creeper, a vine that likes to escape into all the shady edges of our yard draping them in a cascade of greenery. Because we see the catbird almost daily, we think it is nesting somewhere in our yard. We hope this is the case, as we like seeing it at our feeder and hearing its various songs during the day.
According to Haney, catbird nests are rather large and bulky, made up of small sticks, grass, bark and mud and lined with fibrous materials such as woven grass, small roots and string. As the birds are secretive about leaving and entering their nests, it is hard to locate them. Rightfully so, because if we can find them, so can predators like foxes, skunks, opossums and cats who may rob the nest of eggs and young.
Gray Catbirds lay a clutch of one to six eggs, and the young are able to leave the nest after 10 days, says Haney. The adults will feed them for another two weeks or so before they are on their own.
According to AAB, the birds overwinter along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and in Central America and the Caribbean Islands. Their populations are stable and they are one of our commonly occurring summer birds.
Listen for the gray catbird in your neighborhood; it’s easy to recognize its mewing call. Add fruit and/or jelly to your feeders, and you will likely be able to see this elusive bird close up. Planting native shrubs that produce fruits and berries in your yard will attract them as well, giving you even more opportunity to enjoy this bird and its many varied and interesting songs.
Cathy Carnes is a retired biologist in Oconto who worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Green Bay Field Office and prior to that with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory Branch in Buffalo, New York. As endangered species coordinator for the USFWS, she helped conserve and recover federally listed threatened and endangered species in Wisconsin.
Mewing call sign that gray catbirds are around
