Gray catbird

Time for the second bird of the week for this week, and this one is a multimedia extravaganza.  Not because it looks particularly exciting; like its name declares, it's pretty much grey.

No, the interesting bit is in the other part of its name, the reason it's called a catbird, and that is because the call it makes does sound remarkably like a cat meowing.  You can listen here.

They are around a lot in the spring, and a couple of weeks ago were just everywhere.  Now they've settled down a little, though we have one out front that we think is nesting.  We're happy for it to be there because they love to eat ants and we've been having problems with them (maybe that's why it's set up house there, it's like living above a restaurant).

Their call sounds like the cat's meow, but their song really is the cats pyjamas.  They're the jazz musicians of the avian world, apparently, improvising long songs on the spot from a variety of different sounds, occasionally throwing the meow in there as a bonus.  I think that mates may judge each other based on the variety of sounds in the songs, and there are a few species that do that.

So they may not be very colourful to look at, but they certainly are interesting to hear, and the keep the bugs at bay to boot!  Definitely worth having around.