Gray catbirds are medium-sized birds with a dark gray body, a black cap and black tail feathers. They have a chestnut patch underneath the tail coverts. Eastern populations are generally darker grey than western populations. Gray catbirds have short rounded wings and long rounded tail feathers, a short black bill, black eyes, and black feet and legs. They range from 21 to 24 cm long, and weigh 23 to 56 grams.
Gray catbirds are monomorphic, meaning that males and females look alike. Chicks are covered in brown or dark grey down.
Range mass: 23 to 56 g.
Range length: 21 to 24 cm.
Sexual Dimorphism: sexes alike
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Gray catbirds mostly forage in treetops and on the ground. They are omnivores, consuming primarily insects and fruits. Insects in their diet include ants, beetles, flies, caterpillars and moths, including gypsy moths, spiders, and aphids. Gray catbirds eat small fruits from a number of different plants, including plants in the following genera: Myrica, Sassafras, Prunus, Cordea, and Trema.
Animal Foods: insects
Plant Foods: fruit
Primary Diet: omnivore
Gray catbirds are important predators of insects, and may be especially important at controlling infestations of gypsy moth larvae. They also provide food for their predators. They are hosts for a number of body parasites, including lice, hippoboscid flies and ticks.
Gray catbird nests are often parasitized by brown-headed cowbirds. However, they are one of the few bird species that is able to learn to recognize cowbird eggs, and to eject them from the nest. Even when brown-headed cowbird eggs are not ejected, brown-headed cowbird chicks rarely survive to fledge from gray catbird nests.
Gray catbirds eat insects, which are often pests to humans. They may particularly important in controlling damaging species of moth and butterfly larvae, such as gypsy moth caterpillars.
Positive Impacts: controls pest population
Gray catbirds are sometimes considered a pest because they eat fruit such as blueberries and raspberries.
Negative Impacts: crop pest
Gray catbirds may benefit from human activity. They commonly make their homes in the kinds of scrubby, dense habitats that are created by deforestation and regrowth. However, their habitat has also been destroyed by clearing fields for agriculture. Gray catbirds are considered to be a common bird species, but they seem to have become less common recently. There are about 10,000,000 gray catbirds in the world. They are protected under the U.S. Migratory Bird Act.
US Migratory Bird Act: protected
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
Gray catbirds communicate visually, by how they hold their head or how their feathers are positioned. They also communicate by way of calls and songs. Gray catbirds are known for their "mew"-like song, which is reminiscent of the "mew" made by a cat. However, these skilled vocalists can make more than 100 different types of sounds, including whistles, harsh chatters and squeaks. They can even mimic other birds, tree frogs and other mechanical sounds that they hear. Part of this ability comes form the unusual structure of their syrinx, which allows both sides of the syrinx to operate independently. This means that gray catbirds can sing with two voices at once. Gray catbirds are also known to sing in duet.
Communication Channels: visual ; acoustic
Other Communication Modes: mimicry ; duets
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Gray catbirds are native to the Nearctic region. They breed in north, central and eastern United States (from Oregon to New Mexico, to along the East coast), and south-central and western Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba). During the winter they live in the extreme southeastern United States, along the east coast of Mexico, and in the Caribbean Islands.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native ); neotropical (Native )
Gray catbirds live in dense thickets of shrubs and vines within woodlands, and are occasionally found in residential areas. They are also found around some forest edges and clearings, along roadsides, fencerows, abandoned farmland and streamsides. They prefer areas without many conifer trees.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; tropical ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: taiga ; forest
Other Habitat Features: urban ; suburban ; agricultural ; riparian
The oldest reported gray catbird lived for ten years and eleven months.
Range lifespan
Status: wild: 10.9 (high) years.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 215 months.
Snakes, rats, foxes, domestic cats, squirrels and chipmunks, raccoons, blue jays, American crows and common grackles prey on catbird eggs and chicks. Adult catbirds are sometimes hunted by raptors such as red-tailed hawks, Cooper's hawks, and peregrine falcons.
Gray catbirds respond aggressively towards predators. They flash their wings and tails at predators and make "quirt" and "mew" calls. They may even attack and peck at predators that come near the nest.
Known Predators:
Gray catbirds are monogamous. Breeding pairs form soon after the catbirds arrive on the breeding grounds in the spring.
Mating System: monogamous
Gray catbirds breed between April and early August. They usually raise two broods per season. The female builds a bulky, open nest that is low to the ground (within 2 m). The nests are made from twigs, scraps, and paper bits. The female then lays 1 to 5 (usually 3 or 4) turquoise-colored eggs (about 17 mm by 24 mm). The female incubates the eggs for 12 to 14 days. The young are altricial when they hatch, and the parents shade them in the nest by perching on the rim with their wings spread and breast feathers fluffed. The male and female both feed young, whose diet usually consists only of small invertebrates. The young depart from the nest 10 to 11 days after hatching, and the parents will continue to feed them for up to 12 days. The young birds can breed for the first time the next summer.
Breeding interval: Gray catbirds breed during the spring and summer. They usually raise two broods per season.
Breeding season: Gray catbirds breed between April and early August.
Range eggs per season: 1 to 5.
Average eggs per season: 3.5.
Range time to hatching: 12 to 14 days.
Range fledging age: 10 to 11 days.
Range time to independence: 12 (high) days.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 1 years.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 1 years.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; oviparous
Average eggs per season: 4.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
Sex: male: 365 days.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
Sex: female: 365 days.
Gray catbirds are born altricial, which means they cannot take care of themselves. Both males and females feed the young, who only eat small invertebrates. Parents shade the young from the sun by perching on the rim of the nest with their wings spread and breast feathers fluffed. The young fledge 10 to 11 days after hatching. The parents continue to feed them for up to 12 days longer.
Parental Investment: altricial ; pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Male, Female, Protecting: Male, Female); pre-independence (Provisioning: Male, Female)
The gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), also spelled grey catbird, is a medium-sized North American and Central American perching bird of the mimid family. It is the only member of the "catbird" genus Dumetella. Like the black catbird (Melanoptila glabrirostris), it is among the basal lineages of the Mimidae, probably a closer relative of the Caribbean thrasher and trembler assemblage than of the mockingbirds and Toxostoma thrashers.[2][3] In some areas it is known as the slate-colored mockingbird.[4]
The name Dumetella is based upon the Latin term dūmus ("thorny thicket";[5] it thus means approximately "small thornbush-dweller" or "small bird of the thornbushes". It refers to the species' habit of singing when hidden in undergrowth. The specific name carolinensis is Neo-Latin for "from the Carolinas".[6]
The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1766 edition of Systema naturae. His original name Muscicapa carolinensis reflected the belief, widespread at that time, that the gray catbird was some sort of Old World flycatcher (presumably due to its remarkably plain coloration, not similar to other mimids).[7]
The genus name has a convoluted nomenclatorial history. The monotypic genus Galeoscoptes, proposed by Jean Cabanis in 1850, was widely used up to 1907. This name roughly means "capped mockingbird", from Latin galea "helmet" and Ancient Greek skóptein (σκώπτειν, "to scold" or "to mock"). But as it turned out, Dumetella was a technically acceptable senior synonym, even though the peculiar circumstances of its publishing left the identity of its author unsolved until 1989. As it turned out, the genus name was published by C.T. Wood in 1837. His description is somewhat eccentric, and was published under his pseudonym "S.D.W.". Wood misquotes his source—John Latham's 1783 General Synopsis of Birds—as calling the bird "cat thrush", probably because he knew the species under that name from George Shaw's General Zoology. Latham's name was "cat flycatcher", analogous to the scientific name of Linné.[5][7][8]
Shaw (and subsequently C.T. Wood) used L.J.P. Vieillot's specific name felivox. This means "cat voice", a contraction of Latin felis ("cat") and vox ("voice"). Vieillot, differing from the earlier authors, believed the bird to be a true thrush (Turdus).[5][9]
Though mimids were widely considered Turdidae until the 1850s, this was not any more correct than treating them as Old World flycatchers, as these three families are distinct lineages of the superfamily Muscicapoidea. In the mid-20th century, the Turdidae and even most of the Sylvioidea were lumped in the Muscicapidae—but the Mimidae were not.
Lastly, the smaller gray catbirds from Bermuda, which have proportionally narrow and shorter rectrices and primary remiges, were described as subspecies bermudianus ("from Bermuda") by Outram Bangs in 1901. But this taxon was never widely accepted, and today the gray catbird is generally considered monotypic as a species, too.
Adults weigh from 23.2 to 56.5 g (0.8 to 2.0 oz), with an average of 35–40 g (1.2–1.4 oz)[9][10] They range in length from 20.5 to 24 cm (8.1 to 9.4 in) and span 22 to 30 cm (8.7 to 11.8 in) across the wings.[10] Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 8.4 to 9.8 cm (3.3 to 3.9 in), the tail is 7.2 to 10.3 cm (2.8 to 4.1 in), the culmen is 1.5 to 1.8 cm (0.6 to 0.7 in) and the tarsus is 2.7 to 2.9 cm (1.1 to 1.1 in).[11] Gray catbirds are plain lead gray almost all over. The top of the head is darker. The undertail coverts are rust-colored, and the remiges and rectrices are black, some with white borders. The slim bill, the eyes, and the legs and feet are also blackish. Males and females cannot be distinguished by their looks; different behaviours in the breeding season is usually the only clue to the observer. Juveniles are even plainer in coloration, with buffy undertail coverts.
This species is named for its cat-like call. Like many members of the Mimidae (in particular mockingbirds), it also mimics the songs of other birds, as well as those of Hylidae (tree frogs), and even mechanical sounds. Because of its well-developed songbird syrinx, it is able to make two sounds at the same time. The alarm call resembles the quiet calls of a male mallard.
A gray catbird's song is easily distinguished from that of the northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) or brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) because the mockingbird repeats its phrases or "strophes" three to four times, the thrasher usually twice, but the catbird sings most phrases only once. The catbird's song is usually described as more raspy and less musical than that of a mockingbird.
In contrast to the many songbirds that choose a prominent perch from which to sing, the catbird often elects to sing from inside a bush or small tree, where it is obscured from view by the foliage.
Native to most of temperate North America east of the Rocky Mountains, gray catbirds migrate to the southeastern United States, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean in winter; except for the occasional vagrant they always stay east of the American Cordillera. They are extremely rare vagrants to western Europe. Normally present on the breeding grounds by May, most leave for winter quarters in September/October; as it seems, this species is increasingly extending its stay in the summer range, with some nowadays remaining until mid-winter as far north as Ohio.[7][12][13] The gray catbird is a migratory species. Spring migration ranges from March to May, and in the fall ranges from late August to November.[14]
The catbird tends to avoid dense, unbroken woodlands, and does not inhabit coniferous, pine woodland. Catbirds prefer a dense vegetative substrate, especially if thorny vegetation is present.[14][15] Scrublands, woodland edges, overgrown farmland and abandoned orchards are generally among the preferred locations of the catbird. In Bermuda, its preferred habitats are scrub and myrtle swamp.[15] During the winter season, the catbird has an affinity for berry-rich thickets, especially within proximity of water sources.[14]
Their breeding habitat is semi-open areas with dense, low growth; they are also found in urban, suburban, and rural habitats. In the winter months they seem to associate with humans even more.[16] These birds mainly forage on the ground in leaf litter, but also in shrubs and trees. They mainly eat arthropods and berries. In the winter months, Cymbopetalum mayanum (Annonaceae) and Trophis racemosa (Moraceae) bear fruit well liked by this species, and such trees can be planted to attract the gray catbird into parks and gardens.[16]
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.
Gray catbirds are omnivores, and approximately 50% of their diet is fruit and berries. They tend to peck more fruit than they can eat. They also eat mealworms, earthworms, beetles, and other bugs. In summer, gray catbirds will eat mostly ants, beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and moths. They also eat holly berries, cherries, elderberries, poison ivy, bay, and blackberries. They also often peck the eggs of other species of birds, but it is unknown if they do this to supplement their diet or to reduce competition for food from other birds.[17]
The gray catbird can be attracted by "pishing" sounds.[9] 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 brood parasitic brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) laid in their nests by pecking them.
This species is widespread and generally plentiful, though its reclusive habits often make it seem less common than it is. It is not considered threatened by the IUCN due to its large range and numbers.[1][9]
On Bermuda however, gray catbirds were once very common, but their numbers have been greatly reduced in recent years by deforestation and nest predation by introduced species (including the great kiskadee Pitangus sulphuratus and the European starling Sturnus vulgaris). In the United States, this species receives special legal protections under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.
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Gray catbird in Prospect Park
Calling at Naperville Riverwalk, Illinois
Adult voicing cat-like sounds at Wildwood Preserve Metropark, Ohio
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In a crab apple tree in New York
Nest and egg in a cedar shrub 4 ft above the ground
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In Belize
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Feeding on custard apple (Annona reticulata)
The gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), also spelled grey catbird, is a medium-sized North American and Central American perching bird of the mimid family. It is the only member of the "catbird" genus Dumetella. Like the black catbird (Melanoptila glabrirostris), it is among the basal lineages of the Mimidae, probably a closer relative of the Caribbean thrasher and trembler assemblage than of the mockingbirds and Toxostoma thrashers. In some areas it is known as the slate-colored mockingbird.
