Birds that Sound Like Cats

BirdNote^®

Birds That Sound Like Cats

Written by Conor Gearin

This is BirdNote. 

[Gray Catbird “mew” call]

Sometimes the cat meowing from the bushes isn’t a cat at all, but a catbird. The Gray Catbird, to be exact.

    [Gray Catbird “mew” call]

Named after their distinctive cat-like “mew” call, Gray Catbirds are mimic thrushes, related to mockingbirds and thrashers. They can imitate a wide variety of noises, from songbirds to mammals to frogs. Males sing the loudest, but females sometimes respond with a quieter song of their own.

    [Gray Catbird mimic songs]

Female and male Gray Catbirds both have a dark cap on their heads and a rusty brown patch under their long tails. They breed throughout much of the U.S. and spend winter in Central America and the Caribbean. Noisy and boisterous in the spring, a migrating flock of catbirds can fill a city park with sound.

    [Multiple Gray Catbirds calling]

Catbirds are most at home in dense bushes and thickets. They love eating berries and other fruits. But they’ve also been seen snacking on cheese or a doughnut when they’re available. 

Gray Catbirds are improvisers – in the foods they eat, and in their ever-changing songs.

    [Gray Catbird mimic songs]

For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.

Support for BirdNote is provided by the Bobolink Foundation and generous listeners around the world.

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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Content Director: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Gray Catbird ML 107426, ML 534675, and ML 94437 recorded by Wil Hershberger.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2023 BirdNote   May 2023       
Narrator: Michael Stein

ID# GRCA-01-2023-05-16        GRCA-01

Reference:
https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/an-expert-mimic-the-gray-catbird/ 
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/gray-catbird 
https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/grycat/cur/sounds