Wing Island Bird Banding Station: Photo Gallery

The Gray Catbird belongs to the family of mimids. Mimids copy the songs and calls of other birds, along with numerous other noises. Gray Catbirds are so named because their call sounds like a cat “mewing.” The song of the catbird is a jumble of melodious notes interspersed with clucks and chattering. A mosaic of shrubs, thickets, and briers comprise their breeding territory, preferring this type of habitat to forest interiors. Catbirds are abundant in southern Canada and most of the United States, except the west during the breeding season. They may stay year round in the East from the south coastal plain of Massachusetts to Florida, and will winter as far south as Panama and the Caribbean islands. Spring migrants arrive in the Northeast at the beginning of May and head back to their winter territories in September. Gray Catbirds can live up to 13 years according to banding records.