Gray Catbird
While I was looking for the Blue Grosbeak, I had noticed some movement among the leaves of another tree in the same area of trees and shrubs, but lower and closer to me. When the Grosbeak flew, I took a closer look, not really expecting to see anything unusual – and found a Gray Catbird in sleek gray plumage and black cap, framed perfectly in lush green leaves. After a moment, it moved further back into the leaves – and then, from its hidden spot, it began to sing, a creaky, halting series of phrases of different kinds – whistles, squeaks, warbles, chirps. Now and then it added a sharp mew. Like a Mockingbird or a Brown Thrasher, a Gray Catbird strings together various mimicked sounds and songs of other birds, as well as phrases of its own, but its song is more interesting and curious than musical. Though secretive, preferring to stay mostly in brushy areas of shrubs, weeds and thickets, a Gray Catbird is a very animated and lively bird to watch. I know this is purely my imagination, but it appears to me a bird with a somewhat artistic temperament, reclusive but jaunty and flamboyant at the same time, with wry sense of humor and a unique sense of style – both in appearance and in song.