Gray Catbird

Common migrant and breeder

Dense, deciduous, woodland thickets, forest edges

This 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.

Descending, cat-like mew, not repeated.

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.

Fruit, seeds, insects, and other invertebrates.

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.

It was in the marshy area.

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

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: 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.