Birding Ohio – A Tale of Two Mimics
June 15, 2010
Article in: Birding
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 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 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:
- Killdeer (broken wing display near road)
- House Sparrow (nest seen)
- Chipping Sparrow (nest seen)
- Yellow Warbler (carrying food)
- American Robin (carrying food)
- Common Grackle (carrying food)
- European Starling (carrying food)
- Brown-headed Cowbird (lurking)
Yellow Warbler
Bird Cliches – What the Heck is the Catbird Seat?
August 5, 2009
Article in: Birding
The Catbird Seat is used to describe an upper-handed position. Someone in the catbird seat is often “sitting pretty”. But is this really the position of one of our favorite birds, the Gray Catbird?
This term is credited with coming from the southern U.S. and in the 1940s sportscaster Red Barber used it for “a pitcher who was almost certain to strike out all the batters.” Catbirds do sit up high but are often found in low tangles. Their incessant chatter mixed with “mewing” is counterproductive to their secretive nature. Plus, their high energy often leads to long periods of non-sitting.
Regardless of the validity of “the catbird seat”, it’s a cool cliche of one cool gray bird.
31 Cool Bird Facts #29 – Gray Catbird
October 29, 2008
Article in: Birding
Gray Catbirds (Dumetella carolinensis) are our area’s cool, common mimics that we found have their own idiom. We found this cool fact from BirdNote, a radio series that consists of short two-minute snippets of interesting bird information.
Sitting in the catbird seat
Longtime baseball announcer Red Barber often described a player in a winning situation as “sitting in the catbird seat.†So what is “sitting in the catbird seat� And what is a catbird? The Gray Catbird is a cousin of the mockingbird, and it does sound a little like a cat. During breeding season, when it’s protecting its territory, the catbird competes with others of its species. The two combatants sing their way to higher and higher perches. The one who finally takes the highest perch is … well … sitting in the catbird seat!
