Wild Guide: Gray Catbird

Being dark gray and preferring to search for food in dense forage, catbirds can be hard to spot. Males usually announce themselves acoustically. Their song is a complex jumble of musical and nonmusical squeaks, whistles, clicks, and nasal sounds. Calls are a distinct and characteristic down-slurred catlike meeoow and a harsh kute or tcheck.

Did You Know?

Catbirds sing nonstop for minutes at a time. You may hear them quote the tunes of cardinals, robins, wrens — even frogs or chickens.