A gray catbird added his song to the chorus on Owl Acres on May 5 of this year. He sat high in a tree in the “catbird seat” and called to all and sundry that he was here and ready to start courting. His repertoire of songs includes the mewing sound that gets him his name along with up to 100 other songs and calls. Some sound like chatter or whistles and squeaks. He can also effectively mimic sounds in the environment like other birds, lawn mowers and frogs.
Like other birds, the catbird has an organ called a syrinx that serves as his voice box. The catbird’s syrinx has two chambers, and he can sing with each one independent of the other. This allows him to sing two different songs simultaneously or alternate voices rapidly. For other songs, he may use just one side of the syrinx. Sometimes he sings in duet with another catbird. The result is over 100 different songs and calls in his repertoire. No wonder I’m having trouble identifying him by sound!
The gray catbird, (Dumetella carolinensis), has a black head, black beak and eyes, and black legs and feet. The rest of him is gray except for a rusty spot under his tail which he shows off during courtship. His wings are short and rounded, and he has a long, rounded tail. He’s about 9 inches beak to tail—about the size of a robin. Females have the same size and coloration as the males.
Catbirds are monogamous during the breeding season, raising two broods per year. Once the female has accepted her partner, she builds a bulky open nest a few feet off the ground. Brown-headed cowbirds have also returned to Owl Acres this spring, and our catbird will need to defend her nest against cowbird eggs. Unlike some other birds that accept the cowbird eggs at the expense of their own, the catbird doesn’t. When she lays her first turquoise egg, she inspects it and imprints it on her brain before laying two or three more eggs. Then, when a grayish white cowbird egg with brown spots appears, she recognizes it as foreign and pecks a hole in it to destroy it. When her own eggs hatch, both parents bring insects to feed the little ones for ten or eleven days before the chicks are ready to leave the nest. Mom and Dad feed them for another couple of weeks until they are able to forage for themselves. Eggs and nestlings are high-quality snacks for larger birds, snakes, rats, cats and other mammals, so the parents aggressively protect their nest, flashing wings and tails, calling, and as a last resort, attacking a predator with their beaks.
Catbirds eat lots of insects like ants, beetles, caterpillars, moths and flies. They forage for them on the ground, poking about with their beaks, flipping leaves over to see what’s underneath. They also like berries, cherries, and other fruit in season but tend to ruin more fruit than they can eat by pecking at it. This does not endear them to commercial growers of raspberries and blueberries.
The expression “sitting in the catbird seat” seems to have its origin in the colorful language of the southern U.S. If you’re sitting in the catbird seat, you are “sitting pretty,” in a place of prominence, or advantage. The expression was popularized by Red Barber (1908-1992), the noted play-by-play radio sports announcer who was known for his colorful phrases. Barber titled his autobiography “Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat.” Ironically, catbirds prefer to live, nest and forage in bushes, thickets and dense vegetation.
Our catbirds will most likely stay for the summer, eating our raspberries and raising their little ones on the insects they find on Owl Acres. In late August, when this year’s parenting is finished, they’ll band together in groups of ten or 15 birds to fly south to Mexico or Central America for the winter. This year’s birds may return next year as well.
Catbirds are not endangered and 10 million or so can be found throughout the United States. We’ll enjoy their multiple melodies throughout the summer sung from whatever catbird seat they fancy.
Photo from Wikimedia.org by David Whelan. Alt text: A slender songbird sits on a twig, backed by a blue sky and a puffy white cloud. Gray Catbird sings from his large repertoire.