Dumetella carolinensis

[pameladean]

I took Ari out on his leash late this afternoon, just before the rain started. He became very much involved in sniffing a particular square foot of ground and then in eating grass. There was a lot of birdsong. I finally realized that all of it was coming from one place, somebody up in the mulberry sapling that has insinuated itself into the neighbors' peabush hedge. It was a robin, no, it was a house finch, no, dammit, it was a starling, what the heck was it, a bluejay, what? I finally caught sight of the miscreant. A gray catbird. I know their own song and call -- Raphael and I always saw them at Rice Lake State Park by the boat ramp, and we had a pair in the back yard the first year we lived here. And I know that catbirds are mimics. But are they that good?

http://birdsbybent.com/ch91-100/gcatbird.html#Voice

Apparently so, at least in the case of some random individuals. We've got a dandy one; I hope it sticks around.

Pamela

Comments

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Pamela, I found a birdsong wav.file page at
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/songwav.html
that includes 2 catbird songs.

A Carolina wren has already raised one family in my front porch Boston fern, and she appears to be tidying up the nest for the next round.

[pameladean]

Thanks, I've bookmarked it. It's simpler, if you just want the song, than the Cornell pages I usually use.

It doesn't have catbirds imitating anything, though -- probably because that would confuse the issue. It has the catlike cry, their own particular song.

Pamela

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I think the catbird's skill depends on whether there's a mockingbird in the vicinity. We had many of both in the New Jersey suburbs, with the result that we had catbirds that sounded like cranky mockingbirds.

[pameladean]

Minnesota doesn't have any mockingbirds, but possibly there are some where the catbird in question goes for the winter.

They do sound a bit cranky, don't they?

Pamela

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

It is easy to get catbirds to stick around - plant blueberry bushes, raspberry/blackberry bushes, grapes, and other fruit-like plants.

I lived in a house that had blueberry bushes. The owners carefully covered them with netting. Once the blueberries approached ripeness,I would come home from work every day to find two or three catbirds in the netting, clearly having had enough of blueberries, and just waiting to be let out (emitting little blueberry colored burps all the while). No, I never got any ripe blueberries.

[pameladean]

Baby crows ate our raspberries one year. They were too cute to deprive of their treats.

We now have mulberry trees, a line between our yard and that to the north, and a number of saplings all over the place. I imagine that's what the catbirds are here for. We also get cedar waxwings, though not every year. There's a wild grape vine, too.

I'll get some suet with berries in when money is looser. Thanks for the tip.

Pamela