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Article in: Birding

Birding Ohio – A Tale of Two Mimics

While Eddie’s been horsing around back in Illinois (kidding!), I’ve found a hotspot of birds right outside my window in Ohio. Work’s been keeping me from any major birding lately, so it is nice to do a little birding from home.

This past May, I was delighted to see both Gray Catbird and Brown Thrasher hanging out in the yard. But by early June it seemed the thrashers had moved on. Every time I thought I heard the thrasher again, eventually I would hear the distinct “mew” of the catbird. Hmm…

The yard show has recently been “Catbirds Gone Wild”: mating, calling and chasing. The catbirds are great at convincing new birders that birding is really fun! They even call in total darkness (very late at night). Sun, rain, or thunderstorm – it doesn’t seem to make a difference.

Gray CatbirdGrey Catbird

Enjoying the varied mimicry, I whistled a note to copy one of (the catbird’s?) songs and there he was – popping up a few feet from the window. Brown Thrasher! Simutaneously, I heard a Gray Catbird out further in the yard. Ha! I knew it!

Brown ThrasherBrown Thrasher

There are at least three Gray Catbirds and two Brown Thrashers living (nesting?) nearby. I am not sure how the competition is with each other, but they seem to coexist in relative closeness.

Now to see some babies. Good June birding everyone!!!

More nesting yard birds:

  1. Killdeer (broken wing display near road)
  2. House Sparrow (nest seen)
  3. Chipping Sparrow (nest seen)
  4. Yellow Warbler (carrying food)
  5. American Robin (carrying food)
  6. Common Grackle (carrying food)
  7. European Starling (carrying food)
  8. Brown-headed Cowbird (lurking)

Yellow WarblerYellow Warbler

1 Comment or Trackback   ↓ Jump to add comment ↓

  1. Lana says:

    We had a gray catbird around here for a while a couple of years back, but I’ve never seen one here again. Not sure what happened there.

    Posted on: June 30, 2010 @ 1:25 am

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