Animal
Gray catbird
Dumetella carolinensis
A medium-sized slate-grey songbird with a black cap, rusty undertail, and remarkable mimicking song. The 'cat' in the common name comes from the species' raspy mewing alarm call — distinctive enough that catbirds are often noticed by ear before sight. Common summer resident on Staten Island; most catbirds migrate to the southeastern U.S. and Caribbean for winter. Frequents thicket-and-shrub habitat.
Scientific
Dumetella carolinensis is a 1.3 oz songbird in the mimid family (Mimidae) — relatives of mockingbirds and thrashers. All three mimid families are notable mimics; the catbird’s song incorporates fragments from many other species’ songs. Songs are long, varied, and rarely repeat the same phrase twice.
The “catbird” name comes from a distinctive raspy mewing call (the species’ alarm call), which sounds remarkably feline. Once you’ve heard it, catbirds become hard to miss.
Diet shifts seasonally — insects and spiders in spring/summer (when feeding nestlings), fruits and berries in late summer and fall (when fueling for migration). The species is one of the principal seed-dispersers for native fruiting shrubs in the eastern U.S.
On Staten Island
Common summer resident — arrives in May, breeds, departs in September/October. Inhabits thicket-and-shrub habitat: dense brushy areas, forest edges, residential gardens with substantial shrub cover. Among the borough’s more-frequently-heard summer birds; the song is distinctive.
See also
Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.
- Member of: [[animal]]
- Contained by: [[staten-island]]
Sources
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology eBird and species accounts
- NYC Audubon SI bird-survey records
- Long-term mimid-bird ecology literature
Rooted in life.
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