A colleague recently asked me about a bird he had heard near his yard that sounded like the meow of a cat. Gray catbird, I told him. If it sounds like a cat and looks like a bird, it's a catbird. I ...

The gray catbird is native to North America. Its range extends across most of the U.S. except for several far western states. Adults are about the size of a cowbird. The gray catbird is a migratory ...

I spied a gray catbird the other day at our suet feeder in Decatur, the first one I’ve seen in our yard this year. It probably has been nesting in the thick hedge in my yard all spring, but the ...

Their uniform gray color and skulkiness make gray catbirds one of the least familiar of our common backyard birds, but they ...

Say ‘scat’ to a cat and it runs away. Say ‘scat’ to a catbird and it starts to improvise. It’s a hepcat bird. These all-gray bird, black-beret-wearing birds can sing for minutes at a time, although it ...

I heard lots of meows in the neighborhood and forest preserves these past few weeks. They weren’t cats. They were catbirds. Gray catbirds to be exact. The robin-sized gray catbird sports a lovely ...

Our days are at their longest now, and dawn comes early with its chorus of birdsong. If you’re up with the sun, you’ll get to enjoy the earliest singers. The gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) ...