When I was a child I had a mocking bird that would come sit in a tree in my back yard and imitate anything I whistled.We sat together for hours.

@SooziinCa

4 жыл бұрын

Watch on youtube "Singing with a Bird - James Taylor". He's playing guitar in a canyon, with his son Ben. The two of them are joined by a feathered canyon resident. Delightful !

We sat in our back porch and played this for the back yard catbirds...at one point we had 4 sitting not 6 feet from us responding to the audio. Too fun!

Gray Catbirds live in the thickets behind my house and I watch them every morning. Sometimes I place blueberries on the ground and then I watch them having a blueberry breakfast! They are elegant looking wild songbirds and friendly (to me anyway). When I stand under the cherry tree there is one who will perch and eat a cherry while I watch from a few inches away. I am happy that we have such trust.

@flashlitestriker4028

5 жыл бұрын

Awesome!!! It is SOOOO "therapeutic", indeed, when we're "gifted" with such trust, isn't it?!

People look at me funny when I say my favorite bird is the Catbird but really, it is. A gentle little soul, tame to the point of taking bread from my hand & with the sweetest sounds in nature. Thank you so much for sharing this!!! =}

@lonnieclemens8028

4 жыл бұрын

I agree with you Gingerjake.

@AdaptiveApeHybrid

2 жыл бұрын

Catbirds, crows and seagulls are my favorites

@jwm6668

Жыл бұрын

I ❤ them too! I've heard 2 of them quack like a Mallard as well. It was amazing! They're so curious and intelligent. Their little black 👀 are so engaging and bright. Much love to you!

I love to say, "Hi baby bird!" and I noticed it would say it too. Melted my heart.

My first encounter with this incredible bird I will never forget! He was trying to imitate a rock wren and after ten or fifteen attempts he would throw his head back and wail “whaaa” it was the cutest thing!

This is really wonderful. It also reminds me of one of the pitfalls of attempting to identify birds by ear alone (particularly when you're relatively new to birding) -- the genius mimics of the bird world! Thanks to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for this excellent web series.

Had a Gray Catbird nest in a bush right outside my window this spring. It was amazing to watch the mother build the nest, lay the eggs, watch the eggs hatch, watch the babies grow/feed, and today the last one finally flew the nest. The chicks would sit on different branches and practice flapping their wings. The ritual for each one to leave the bush was the same. The mother would stand on the ground, smack her tail 3 times into the ground, and the baby would launch itself into the air, then they scurried to hide under a different bush until the next one leaped out. It was pretty amazing to witness.

In my urban area, I've observed a catbird that incorporated the sound of a car alarm into its song repetoire.

@davidcoates6201

Жыл бұрын

I have heard a catbird mimic the horn of a passing truck. It's amazing what they can do. I get them on my feeders all the time--they'll often try to scare off other birds by imitating the mating calls of owls up here.

@summerbiby1496

Жыл бұрын

Fascinating

The catbirds have been coming where I live for a few years. I'm not sure if it's been the same male for a while, but he has mimicked a Baltimore Oriole and a Northern Cardinal to near-perfection and now he's mimicking the dogs barking! What an interesting and wonderful bird.

@catbirdies

10 жыл бұрын

yep i can assure you its the same fucking male because thats what i am y0

The catbird I had living in my neighborhood mimicked the VW next door starting up!!

I was so excited the other day when a catbird that has been hanging around our house tweeted " 🎶 Take out the Trash 🎶 " sounded just like my wife ..

Very weird for a Gray catbird to even be in Northern California. This obviously was a very precious individual. Nice video!

One of my favorites such sweet gentle birds who are very friendly and curious little guys.

I have a catbird mating pair that are excellent mimics! I just sit and listen and watch them imitate the myriad of birds I am fortunate to have in my yard and across the street in the woods. So beautiful. Thanks for sharing!

We have a catbird in our neighborhood in No. California who sings a seemingly inexhaustible repertoire of varied calls and sounds all night and into the morning. He's a virtuoso. I call him Mozart. He's been at it for many hours without stop and concertizes from the same tree with dense foliage every night and morning. I can still hear singing at 6:30 am after singing most of the night.

Cool, I didn't know he was a mimic. "My" catbirds just mew! They are also very fond of the grape jelly I put out for the Orioles, and pick at my suet block too.

They are pretty incredible. I have one here in Mattawa, Ontario, Canada that returns every year. His vocabulary in also very extensive. He tries to mimic blue jays and has also tries to mimic the American kestrels that visit here in late spring. I enjoy his presence immensely. His joyful songs make me smile.

NEVER NOTICED A CATBIRD TILL THIS DAY IN ROCKFORD, IL HE IS AN AMAZING CREATURE WHAT A BEAUTIFUL SOUND. I WAS ON THE BACK PORCH WHEN HE FLEW DOWN ONLY TO TELL ME IN A LOUD SCREACH HE WAS INTERESTED IN THE BIRD SUET CAGE HANGING THERE SO I CREPT INDOORS TO LET HIM FEED HE CHOWED DOWN LIKE HE WAS VERY HUNGRY HOPE HE RETURNS VERY COOL BIRD.

@catbirdies

10 жыл бұрын

YEA DUDE IKR IM A BEAUTIFUL CREATURE SUB ME

@otis6519

5 жыл бұрын

Weird. I came to watch this today because i saw one for the first time ever in ... Belvidere..

@notafanboy250

4 жыл бұрын

That’s actually legit a cool story.

A few days ago I had left some watermelon rinds on my picnic table. A catbird came and started visiting and eating the pink parts of the rind. Now I leave about an inch of the fruit on the rind and get frequent visits. They also seem to really like my beauty berry bushes too. Sometimes cardinals also like the melon pieces.

We always like to joke that my mom is "the catbird whisperer" since the shy guys over at our house never seem to come around except when she's outside. Always fun for us to see these cuties.

Wow! I'm sitting in my back yard in Massachusetts, waiting to catch a catbird on the feeder to take a pic - so I'm playing your video to see it it works. When my kid was little, and I called her to come in, the catbird copied my saying "Claaaareeeee" - two birdies just showed up!!!

We always had Catbirds in our bakcyard, in our old home as it was surrounded by 6 ft high hedges. Lost of cover for all kinds of birds. In our newly build home we don't have the varity of birds like we use to so I miss this particular bird songs...thanks for posting.

I've had one around my house in Buffalo new York it's been repeatedly saying Gary for weeks lol but what a beautiful bird

@flickaJay

7 жыл бұрын

lol That would be funny to hear a bird saying someones name. I believe it though.

@peacockblue8407

6 жыл бұрын

🚍 i'm on nfta route .... what street? 😜

@falconadv1481

4 жыл бұрын

Haha totally.. "Heeeey! Gaaaaaaary!"... Between that and the cheeseburger birds wtf 😂

@yanki161

4 жыл бұрын

FalconADV I can’t believe you just said “cheeseburger” birds. That’s exactly what I’ve been calling them. I also have a bird that I call the Bernie bird. It’s call sounds like it is saying “Bernie, Bernie”. I live in central NJ.

@annekurz213

4 жыл бұрын

I live in Buffalo too. It is always screaming for Gary!

We live in the suburbs, with the usual mix of backyard birds. One morning I was awakened, shocked, to hear a wood thrush in the back yard. He sang for a while, just that one day, never to return. But a few days later I 'heard' him again. He returned in the song of a gray catbird, whose mimic was unmistakable. Our catbirds also routinely mimic northern cardinals, robins, chicadees. I 'm sure there are many others I'm just not quick enough to catch. I love the catbird, with his elegant gray morning suit and irrepressible burbling song.

Your video makes my yard filled with catbirds dance and sing. Nor cal, Shasta County.

Thanks for creating and sharing this delightful, educational, and fun video!

That is just TOO amazing. Whenever I hear these guys, I feel blessed. Nice job on the recording.

In the burbs of Philly the catbirds have me trained to bring them raisins whenever they appear on my deck! If I'm sitting eating breakfast they will fly into my view of even fly into the kitchen to get my attention. They go south in the fall but showed up on my deck chair one spring morning, same bird!

Aww. This is beautiful. We have a male this year who mimics the whistle we use to call his mate (a semi-tame female who has been coming/responding to our whistle to eat raisins just a few feet away since the summer of 2020). He even answers us back when we whistle.

We had a catbird in our backyard in Brooklyn that did a perfect imitation of that car alarm with all the different sounds - spot on!

love the video great job. i have a hummingbird nest in my yard and a catbird nest 20' away, when baby hummingbird left the nest on 8/29/2012 , momma hummingbird got bored and is now feeding the two baby catbirds at their nest with the momma catbird they take turns momma hummer will wait till it's her turn to feed, i never seen this before they are great friends. video soon. mike silcott seaville n.j.

@katsavage6848

3 жыл бұрын

did you make the video?!

Thank you for posting this... I love birds, and the catbird is becoming one of my favorites. I loved the last bit of information about 'being around' longer and appealing to potential mates! Truly amazing!

These are one of my favorite birds. We have oodles of them, generations that have nested in the shrubs around our yard for at least a decade. I look forward to hearing their evening serenades.

@nancyfloerchinger2053

9 жыл бұрын

I always loved seeing and hearing the catbirds at my Grandparents lake cottagein MN. We don't have them here though.

Hi, Greg (c: You said the catbird does such mimicking in order to show he has been around for a number of breeding seasons, picking up these calls along the way . . . demonstrating to a potential mate that he will be able to survive while with her. Also, I consider > the calls could help to mark territory against other bird species, so they don't compete for food, maybe. But also using the noncompetitive birds' calls could help prove his robustness, as you say > he could be multi-tasking (c:

When I was a kid, I loved finding catbirds in the woods near my house and listening to them go nuts. One of my favorite birds.

Beautifully done video! Was just listening to one in the trees outside the bedroom window and had to look out and see what was making all that different( and very LOUD) sound.

The past week or so I thought I had a brown thrasher pair nesting in a tree outside my window, because I could hear the male doing mockingbird-like series of calls/songs, but with only 1-2 repetitions. I was excited because I like thrashers a lot, but it took a while before I was able to spot one of the birds making these sounds by my house. Just today I finally coaxed one out of the dense foliage by making a sp-sp-sp sound, and it wasn't a brown thrasher but one of these little gray cuties!!! I don't believe I've heard one since I was a little kid. I KNEW there was somtething familiar but long-ago about one of the sounds in this male's repertoire. --It was of course the nasal-y 'cat' calls, although to me it sounds more like a scolding gray squirrel. Kinda.

I finally Identified this bird that is enjoying my bird bath, and waits for me to freshen the water lol and this bird makes sure it's the first one to bathe. Sitting on my back porch, it's a lovely view and so alive. I own 3 acres, its all natural wooded acreage too, in Central Florida. I have such a wonderful variety of birds, more now late Spring. All week a Mother Doe is showing up to graze on the fallen birdseed with her half grown fawn. It's a sight to behold and experience...❤️ Try sitting outdoors quietly, you will be amazed what you all can see.

@jakeornot6306

2 жыл бұрын

Lovely.

No running rules for the catbird outbursts. .The Brown Thrasher sticks to his couplets,The Mockingbird is a Cluniac with his "golden section" three to ones.The catbird is in the hedgerow close to us ,and as you witnessed a visitor to backcountry. This stellar performer,though,breaks ranks with his tribe.Thank You for being there.

I saw one of these birds, where I live in Slidell Louisiana. This is a very interesting creature!

What a great little video. I love hearing the wonder in someone who knows just how special something is when they see or hear it.

WOW! That is an amazing array of mimicry. Very impressive and thanks for sharing!

These may be my favorite bird, they are badass too I saw one fight off an invasive Bluejay once :D

Wow, this is such an impressive breakdown of mimicry! It must have taken forever to figure out how many different species your catbird was mimicking. I finally realized that the catbirds in my neighborhood like to mimic vireos most often, when they aren't inventing their own phrases and sounds, of course. I had a very tame one in 2018 that ate raisins from my hand every day for 3 months. Until I put the suet feeder out during the summer, then you couldn't keep him away from the suet! I love my catbirds!

Thank you so much for this video! I've been saying all spring when I hear this mimic repertoire, "That guy is gettin' it!" Not realizing that it was a catbird I was hearing. I have only watched them "mew" on the feeder then this morning I went out in the backyard to spy the bird that was singing a dozen songs loud and proud. I had no idea that my lovely catbirds were responsible!

Catbirds are one of the loveliest sounds in my garden. What an amazing ear Greg has that could distinguish these different species. I love this video!

Love this bird, beautiful songs, Thank you.

the catbirds in the ravine behind my parent's house have very complex songs, it's wonderful to hear!

I just saw this bird in my backyard. I giggled when I looked up their song because it was so diverse it sounds like all the birds in my backyard! Lol

I would think that all those other birds would think to themselves "oh this apartments taken" and not move in. So the catbird sings all the songs each night to tell them all bugger off this is mine lol

That was wonderful! I liked the way you put your video together also!

Thank you so much for the video.

"My" catbirds have imitated my voice.

@flashlitestriker4028

5 жыл бұрын

Awesome!

What a beautiful sound❤

The moment I started paying attention to the boisterous bird outside my window was when he started mimicking a black backed gull. We're 5 miles inland from the south shore, Massachusetts, so it's unusual to hear sea birds here

Bravo! Fantastic video.

It’s sharing with us all of the different friends that it must have met that day, or that week. It’s incredible and beautiful!

I love this video. I'm thinking that since it was found in an area where you don't expect to find Catbirds, it only had other animals to mimic and built up a more diverse repertoire than Catbirds that are around each other a lot.

The grey catbirds I have in my backyard in Oakville (southern Ontario west of Toronto), mimics all the time - robin, red-winged blackbird, sometimes starling, and a host of other warbler-like sounds.

Oh my goodness, I had this same experience off my back patio along the creek where I live. An amazing series of songs from a bird in the tree.....sat for a long time amazed at the vocalizations. It was a catbird. :)

This is incredible!

For years we have had catbirds in our neighborhood. There was always a few who like to sing in the dead of night, and they mimic everything from car alarms to microwave beeps, ducks, geese, children screaming in play, crickets, and any bird it hears. They will put on a show for hours! I have a family of catbirds here in my backyard - they are always first at the feeder in the morning, and last at dusk. They sometimes just sit with me, after all the other birds are long roosted for the night. They are polite at the feeder and the only birds that don't get alarmed and fly off at every little noise. They like coming close to me and when the food runs low, they wait patiently by till i replenish. Amazing sweet little birds. They love fruit - strawberries especially. One day I put out a strawberry, and when this one catbird realized what it was, he dropped a good peanut just to grab that strawberry! Thanks for the comparison songs, it fascinates me how well they mimic! And how they seem to "meow"!

Although I do not know different bird calls very well, where I lived in Maryland we had catbirds everyday in the summer and I heard many of these "non-catbird" sounds coming from the occasional catbird. Admittedly it was very rare but I worked outside often and I would say one out of maybe 100 or more had such an unbelievable dynamic repertoire. Really a treat to hear ...you do not need to be an ornithologist to recognize these were very different bird calls, and ones only originating from other birds.

We have had Mockingbirds and Catbirds in the thickets behind our house (New Brunswick, Canada) for many years. I am starting to think that many of the songs I have I have only heard and attributed to the Mockingbird, were in fact the Catbirds!

@michaelroy6046

5 жыл бұрын

me too. im not too far away in portland, maine usa. maybe the ones here are evolving

@taniaparkinson4835

3 жыл бұрын

Also here in New Brunswick. Love the catbirds in my yard.

@Cosmogirl014

3 жыл бұрын

Here too in CT! I hand feed my Catbirds. They know their names and come hopping around gardens up to the deck. They even brought fledglings and fed them on the chair on my deck. They sit on chair and look in window for me. I always seem to hit just right when I open door and say KAT she comes and I feed her raisins and tiny round suet balls. LOVE Catbirds! ❤️ The baby meows a lot. Not old enough to mimic though just today she gave me a new sound, that is why I'm hear listening for it.

i raised two catbirds along with 8 orphan mockingbirds,they all survived to independence. check them all out on my channel you will enjoy!

Awesome repertoire of bird calls/songs ... this will be my "go to" site for identification!

Love these beauties!

What amazing display of beauty, incredible! i never expected this bird could make all those sounds, i am from El Salvador, CentralAmerica and i once heard this bird but i will definitely read about this bird, once again, beatiful...

One of my favorites.

Thanks!! I have a mockingbird I go outside to listen to every time I wake up in the middle of the night since he is going through his repertoire between 1 AM and 3:30 AM every single night. Even does crickets. But i hear blue jay, baby jay, starling, baby starling, robin, etc. what I first noticed with the catbird is their ability to maneuver in flight. Probably the best flyer I've seen in New Jersey. From a standstill start they do this sweeping motion and often fly very low to the ground and stop on a dime. But not the way other birds do. They are definitely little sneaks too, Getting chased away by the mother Robin when she tries to feed a fledgling, the cat bird will swoop down and try to grab whatever it is the fledgling is having trouble with. But that's common to most species I guess. Survival of the fittest, and best able to steal. LOL

Great video.

Very nice video--thank you! I had a catbird on my bathroom window today singing away, not knowing what kind of bird it was, I researched and found your video...

This is very interesting to me, I am Mexican and most of my life I had lived in the center of my country, and in 2000-2003 I lived in the south (close to CANCUN) which is about 2000 kms from where I live now, and I had lived in some states of Mexico, there is a bird we call LUIS because that is what they say all the time and are very noisy LUIS, ¡LUIS! But en that place there were those birds too, but they were mute, they don t say LUIS ¡nothing! And also 2 times I saw a bird like the one you describe in this video perched in the top of a small tree singing, imitating a lot of different songs of different birds (which I didn t knew because I just have in there living for one year, but it sounds like this bird CATBIRD i guess in the sense that it sang a lot of different songs. (my English is imperfect I know)

@jakeornot6306

2 жыл бұрын

Lovely story, and your English is excellent. (And how many of the rest of us can even write two words in Spanish?)

@robertopacheco2943

2 жыл бұрын

@@jakeornot6306 Thank you for the comment, you can write 2 words in spanish right now: BIRD/PAJARO, and WATER/AGUA ha,ha...

I love catbirds! What cute little sounds

I'm blown away by this bird. He just showed up in our backyard yesterday. Singing so softly like a merwoo sound, then garbled like a human!! We had our cockatoos out there with us and he was singing along with them. Absolutely amazing!! Strange he'd be in the city..wonder what brought him here..??? London Ontario. Odd..

I'm here because I heard a wren outside my window this morning, when usually the wrens are around back working on their nest box. I look out my window and there's my catbird, he was imitating the wrens. I also think he's starting to imitate words 'pretty bird' because for 3-4 yrs I've had a cardinal who comes exactly at sun up and sun down each day/night and sings outside my window. When I have the window open (right next to my desk, so I'm sitting a foot from it) I say out the window "hello pretty bird", and this morning I swore I heard catbird say pretty bird a couple times just as our cockatiel does.

awe inspiring--thank you

I discovered these little beauties this year in my yard. Today one let me come right up to him. When I spoke to him he sang me a little song.

Amazing!

This was spectacular, I had no idea the catbirds did that. I only just photographed one a couple weeks ago here in Ontario, Canada. I must find and observe him again. Thank you

I've got one in my back yard that can mimic our resident bald eagles. It's pretty good at it!

@flashlitestriker4028

5 жыл бұрын

Wow! How cool!

@biancalana2372

4 жыл бұрын

I have one that mimics a hawk’s screech! It was doing it in between eating at a bird feeder

Wonderful video! Learned so much! I have an eye for these special beauties and the info you gave just sealed the deal! Love them! 💃 We take great care of ours here at my home. And ALL the others too! 😊 It’s a family affair here. 💫

Wow, they are beautiful for sure. They have just showed up here in central pa. They follow me around when I'm mowing...😍

Most of my feathers were given to me by the birds who dropped them, except a few that were given to me by human brethren. I wouldn't kill my feathered brother to get his feathers, I thank him for the ones he gives to me. Wanbli Wiaka was given to me by a Lakota Vietnam Vet. All are sacred. Life is sacred.

I just saw my first catbird of the year out my back window. I was so confused the first time I heard one of their calls, years ago; they're certainly impressive vocalists. :)

@sourark5564

3 жыл бұрын

Love our catbird, I always thought their sound was calling my sons name ,Aaron in a nasal way! But we have lots of them and one really mimics other birds alot!

I had one in the Byard do a perfect "drink your tea-eeea" of the E. towhee. Several times.

Wow, Thanks for sharing.

Wow!!! I have one that nests in my holly bush near my deck ! I always thought I had a mocking bird too, but it is the cat bird that is singing all the different bird calls!

Fascinating! Dwellers of the understory. Dare I say friend.

I live at Lake Wabamun, Alberta, Canada. Tuesday June 7,2016 I was gifted with wonderful sounds and I spotted the bird. There were no mewing sounds so I thought perhaps it was not a Cat Bird, but the most beautiful variety of sounds and mimicry going on as the description for the Catbird. Never saw or heard anything like it before! Beautiful singing and much variance and variety of vocals. Thank you for your video. I am now a first hand witness of the Cat Bird's extensive vocal repertoire.

Amazing bird.Just had one land in my yard.Must be from the south though. He had a southern accent and was singing "Freebird".

I saw a cat bird this morning in Princeton Minnesota

One in Cornwall England at the moment!!!

Wow! Fantastic bird! Thumbs up**********!! Thank you for sharing.

Of course your cat bird sang fantastic songs. He went to Cornell.

@jakeornot6306

2 жыл бұрын

And then moved back to California to escape the cold.

Smart little buggers. A couple have moved to my yard. They seem to like my dogs.

Love the sound of a catbird.

Awesome what an amazing bird

i had one doing a perfect eastern phoebe last week. it was very confusing and beautiful