Have you been hearing this bird song this summer?
[Call of catbird]
We have been hearing these calls frequently this summer emanating from a small thick stand of aspen and shrubs. It sounds like there are several birds in there. But occasionally we get the opportunity to see the source, which is a catbird, or gray catbird to be more precise. No doubt some of you recognized the song.
North Dakota is home to one species of catbird, the gray catbird. If you are not familiar with the catbird, they are about the size of a long, slender robin I shape, gray, with a dark cap and a long tail. They can be found across the state and are associated with dense thickets of small trees and shrubs. Catbirds feed on a variety of insects but also are known to consume a variety of fruits when available. I was surprised to learn recently that, like orioles, they can be attracted to an area by setting out some grape jelly or oranges.
Catbirds often nest near the center of dense shrubs and trees in the branches of the trees or shrubs, four feet or so above the ground. The females may lay 3-5 unmarked blue green eggs in a nest and perhaps two broods during the summer months. It is interesting to note that catbirds will break and remove any cowbird eggs deposited in the nest. Robins do as well. So catbirds and robins do not tolerate nest parasitism.
But back to the catbirds call. Catbirds, like their close relatives the mockingbirds and thrashers, are known for calls that mimic calls of other birds. Arthur Cleveland Bent in his Life Histories of Familiar North American Birds described the catbird’s singing well…”the catbird at its best stands high in the ranks of our American bird singers...and pours forth its melody…Phrase follows phrase in rapid succession, and snatches of all the bird songs in the neighborhood appear intermixed with occasional harsher notes, which are given with as much care and finish as the more melodious ones.”
So keep your ears open for the calls of the gray catbird. And, oh, they do also occasionally have a call that is similar to a cat’s meow, thus the common name. All these calls, of course, provide some interesting avian music!
