Gray Catbird

Dumetella carolinensis

Mews like an actual cat hiding in the bushes. Mimics, mutters, and gets the message across.

Population: ~29 million (global breeding population, Partners in Flight, cited in IUCN assessment)
Habitat: Dense tangled thickets, vine tangles, shrubby forest edges, overgrown fields/farmland, hedgerows, fencerows, and suburban/urban gardens with dense low vegetation; avoids unbroken dense woodland and coniferous forest; winters in denser forested/berry-rich thickets in the tropics
Fun fact: The Gray Catbird gets its name from its cat-like mewing call, and thanks to a well-developed songbird syrinx it can produce two different sounds simultaneously and mimic other birds, tree frogs, and mechanical sounds.
Range: Breeds across temperate North America east of the Rocky Mountains (southern Canada through the eastern/central US); winters in the southeastern US, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, staying east of the Cordillera (rare vagrants excepted); a historically common but now much-reduced resident population occurs in Bermuda
Diet: Omnivorous — roughly half fruit/berries (elderberries, holly, blackberries, cherries, poison ivy, bay berries) and half arthropods (beetles, ants, caterpillars, grasshoppers, moths, earthworms); occasionally pecks/eats other birds' eggs
Size: 0.225 m
Wingspan: 0.26 m
Lifespan: 17.9 years

More Songbirds