Gray Catbird

LC - Least Concern

N5B, N5N - Secure Breeding and Nonbreeding

SNRB - Unranked Breeding

not listed

Gray Catbird is a chunky, medium-sized, perching bird. They are present in Minnesota from May through mid-October. They winter in the southeastern United States, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. The oldest recorded lifespan is of a bird in captivity is 17 years and 10 months.

Adults are 8¼″ to 9½″ long, weigh .8 ounce to 2 ounces, and have a wingspan of 8¾″ to 12″.

The wings, back, chest, and belly are slate gray. The bird often displays a raised tail when perched. The tail feathers are slate gray or dark gray above, black with pale edges below. The undertail coverts are chestnut brown. The legs and feet are black.

The head is slate gray with a black crown and forehead. The bill is short, slender, and black. The eyes are black.

Males and females are alike in size and appearance. They can be distinguished only by behavior in Breeding season.

8½″ to 9″in length

11″ wingspan

The call is a descending, cat-like mew, not repeated.

The song is long and complex, consisting of a series of phrases, each phrase sung only once.

Gray Jay (Perisoreus canadensis) has a white forehead, cheek, and throat. It does not have a black crown or chestnut undertail coverts.

Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) has a pale throat, chest, and belly. The wings are dark with two white wing bars. It does not have a black crown, black forehead, or chestnut undertail coverts.

Townsend’s Solitaire (Myadestes townsendi) has buffy wing patches and a white eye ring. It does not have a black crown, black forehead, or chestnut undertail coverts.

Dense, deciduous, woodland thickets, forest edges

Gray Catbirds usually have two broods per season. Breeding begins soon after the adults reach the Breeding territory in April. The female builds a nest, sometimes with the male supplying materials, usually on a horizontal branch near the center of a dense shrub or small tree.

The female lays usually 3 or 4, but as few as 1 or as many as 5, turquoise-colored eggs. The eggs hatch after 12 to 14 days. The young leave the nest after 10 or 11 days.

Fruit, seeds, insects, and other invertebrates.

Common migrant and breeder

The Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union All Seasons Species Occurrence Map

Catbird

It was in the marshy area.

Has a nest in my raspberries with blue eggs, next day chicks

Location: Plymouth MN

This bird hit my 2nd story window, and lay on the concrete below. I thought he would die, and it was 97 degrees, so put a bucket beside him to shade him. 4 hours later he is standing, which surprised me. I moved him with to shade behind my garage and make him a house out of a small box with both water and grape jelly inside. He did not seem afraid. He stays overnight in his box house. I check on him in the morning, and see his jelly is almost gone. I bring more jelly to his house, and he flies out and lands in my yard. Then flies away.

Location: Forest Prairie Township, Central Minnesota

Had a pair hanging out in our yard this morning.

Location: Rochester, MN

Catbird

Location: Washington County

Location: Westwood Nature Center in St. Louis Park MN

It was in the marshy area.

Location: Maplewood MN

Has a nest in my raspberries with blue eggs, next day chicks

Location: North Branch

Quite vocal, constantly calling from around our campsite

Location: eDuluth, MN; Hunter's Park Neighborhood

at suet feeder; potentially nesting in White Cedar Grove

Location: Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge

A Gray Catbird foraging on the ground in The Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge, a rather secretive bird that the Chippewa Indians named "the bird that cries with grief" due to its raspy call. It will only nest in thick shrubs.

Location: Eden Prairie

Location: Purgatory Creek Park

Location: Purgatory Creek Park

Location: Pennington Co.