How Nature Works: Catbird Mimicry

When I was a child I had a mocking bird that would come sit in a tree in my back yard and imitate anything I whistled.We sat together for hours.

We sat in our back porch and played this for the back yard catbirds...at one point we had 4 sitting not 6 feet from us responding to the audio. Too fun!

Gray Catbirds live in the thickets behind my house and I watch them every morning. Sometimes I place blueberries on the ground and then I watch them having a blueberry breakfast! They are elegant looking wild songbirds and friendly (to me anyway). When I stand under the cherry tree there is one who will perch and eat a cherry while I watch from a few inches away. I am happy that we have such trust.

People look at me funny when I say my favorite bird is the Catbird but really, it is. A gentle little soul, tame to the point of taking bread from my hand & with the sweetest sounds in nature. Thank you so much for sharing this!!! =}

I love to say, "Hi baby bird!" and I noticed it would say it too. Melted my heart.

My first encounter with this incredible bird I will never forget! He was trying to imitate a rock wren and after ten or fifteen attempts he would throw his head back and wail “whaaa” it was the cutest thing!

This is really wonderful.  It also reminds me of one of the pitfalls of attempting to identify birds by ear alone (particularly when you're relatively new to birding) -- the genius mimics of the bird world!   Thanks to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for this excellent web series.

Had a Gray Catbird nest in a bush right outside my window this spring. It was amazing to watch the mother build the nest, lay the eggs, watch the eggs hatch, watch the babies grow/feed, and today the last one finally flew the nest. The chicks would sit on different branches and practice flapping their wings. The ritual for each one to leave the bush was the same. The mother would stand on the ground, smack her tail 3 times into the ground, and the baby would launch itself into the air, then they scurried to hide under a different bush until the next one leaped out. It was pretty amazing to witness.

In my urban area, I've observed a catbird that incorporated the sound of a car alarm into its song repetoire.

The catbirds have been coming where I live for a few years. I'm not sure if it's been the same male for a while, but he has mimicked a Baltimore Oriole and a Northern Cardinal to near-perfection and now he's mimicking the dogs barking! What an interesting and wonderful bird.

The catbird I had living in my neighborhood mimicked the VW next door starting up!!

I was so excited the other day when a catbird that has been hanging around our house tweeted " 🎶 Take out the Trash 🎶 " sounded just like my wife ..

Very weird for a Gray catbird to even be in Northern California. This obviously was a very precious individual. Nice video!

One of my favorites such sweet gentle birds who are very friendly and curious little guys.

I have a catbird mating pair that are excellent mimics! I just sit and listen and watch them imitate the myriad of birds I am fortunate to have in my yard and across the street in the woods. So beautiful. Thanks for sharing!

We have a catbird in our neighborhood in No. California who sings a seemingly inexhaustible repertoire of varied calls and sounds all night and into the morning. He's a virtuoso. I call him Mozart. He's been at it for many hours without stop and concertizes from the same tree with dense foliage every night and morning. I can still hear singing at 6:30 am after singing most of the night.

Cool, I didn't know he was a mimic. "My" catbirds just mew! They are also very fond of the grape jelly I put out for the Orioles, and pick at my suet block too.

They are pretty incredible. I have one here in Mattawa, Ontario, Canada that returns every year. His vocabulary in also very extensive. He tries to mimic blue jays and has also tries to mimic the American kestrels that visit here in late spring. I enjoy his presence immensely. His joyful songs make me smile.

NEVER NOTICED A CATBIRD TILL THIS DAY IN ROCKFORD, IL HE IS AN AMAZING CREATURE WHAT A BEAUTIFUL SOUND. I WAS ON THE BACK PORCH WHEN HE FLEW DOWN ONLY TO TELL ME IN A LOUD SCREACH HE WAS INTERESTED IN THE BIRD SUET CAGE HANGING THERE SO I CREPT INDOORS TO LET HIM FEED HE CHOWED DOWN LIKE HE WAS VERY HUNGRY HOPE HE RETURNS VERY COOL BIRD.

A few days ago I had left some watermelon rinds on my picnic table. A catbird came and started visiting and eating the pink parts of the rind. Now I leave about an inch of the fruit on the rind and get frequent visits. They also seem to really like my beauty berry bushes too. Sometimes cardinals also like the melon pieces.