Gray catbird

Language English

Onglets

Description

Distinguishing features

The gray catbird is a slender-bodied, slate-grey coloured passerine, with a black cap. It frequently flicks its tail, which is chestnut underneath.

Reproduction

Gray catbirds usually nest in a shrub or at the base of a tree. The female generally lays 4 eggs, incubating them herself for 12 to 15 days. The male helps to feed the young, which spend from 9 to 15 days in the nest, although they are reliant on the parents for another 2 weeks after that.

Diet

In the spring, they mostly eat insects. Later in the year, they turn largely to fruit.

Predators

The adults may possibly be hunted by diurnal and nocturnal raptors. The eggs and young may be eaten by some mammals. Brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) infrequently lay their eggs in these birds' nests.

Habitat

Gray catbirds nest across southern Canada and in the central and eastern United States. They prefer dense vegetation along woodland edges and in thickets and ravines. During the nesting period, they also favour large gardens, wooded parkland, roadsides and fallow fields.

Ecology, behaviour

The unmistakable call of the gray catbird resembles the mewing of a cat. They also mimic the songs of other birds, the phrases of which they string together. Unlike mockingbirds and thrashers, they do not repeat their musical phrases.

Gray catbirds are able to recognize the eggs of the brown-headed catbird, which they throw from their nests. They winter from the southeastern United States to Panama and the Caribbean.

French name

Moqueur chat

Scientific name

Dumetella carolinensis

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Birds

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Mimidae

Size

Length: 21 to 24 cm

Weight

Average: 37 g

Life span

Record: 10 years 11 months

Status

Least Concern (IUCN). Abundant species.

At the Biodôme

The Biodôme has only one female of this species in the Laurentian Maple Forest ecosystem. Grey catbirds are rather timid birds. They can be seen near the beaver pond lookout, where they feed regularly at the birdfeeders.

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