Gray Catbirds of the Vermilon River. A Post to Camera Critters # 144



Immature Catbird




Immature Catbird



Adult Catbird



Adult Catbird



Adult Catbird

I usually shoot in a series to ensure I get good photos that require as little editing as possible. If I'm lucky this gives me lots of pics to post. So when I got these little fellows all that I could figure out was that I had an immature. With the help of some people at NWO birding they identified it as a Gray Catbird. And I posted a few photos.Today I was going through my file looking for what I thought were some pics of a Northern Mockingbird ,which I could post. When I pulled up the so-called Mockingbird, I had real second thoughts and went over to Cornell Labs and ran through Northern Mockingbirds, Gray Jays, Catbirds and Shrikes. Cornell is really good because they show other birds that are confused with what you think you have. I don't think I have a Mockingbird at all, but an adult Gray Catbird. Mom and Dad to my immature.

Now a few facts about Gray Catbirds. They are gray all over except for the black cap on their head, which you can just see in photo # 1. and have rusty red feathers under the tail feathers.The last identifier was useless to me for obvious reasons. The Northern Mockingbird has white wing feathers at the edge, and a white belly. Identifying birds is hard, isn't it?  Sometimes it's a process of elimination. The bird is a member of the mockingbird and thrashers group, and copy their songs from other birds in a similiar fashion. Yet, their song is distinctive because it has a cat like mewling in it.

For further information see: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/ Cornell Lab and http://birdsbybent.com/ch91-100/gcatbird.html
For other Camera Critters photos, go to: http://camera-critters.blogspot.com/