Gray Catbird

The Gray Catbird is a slim, long-tailed mimid in understated dress — uniform slate grey all over, set off by a neat black cap and, often hidden, a patch of rich chestnut beneath the tail. It is a skulker of dense thickets, more often heard than seen, and the surest clue to its presence is the cat-like "mew" call that gives the bird its name.

Like its relatives the mockingbird and thrashers it is an accomplished mimic, stringing together a long, halting, improvised song of whistles, squeaks and borrowed phrases that can run to a hundred different sounds. It feeds on insects in summer and turns heavily to wild berries and fruit in late summer and autumn, and it builds a bulky cup low in a dense shrub, laying glossy turquoise eggs.

In Maine the Gray Catbird is a common breeder of brushy edges, hedgerows, gardens and damp thickets, where its mewing and rambling song carry from deep cover. It is a bird of the tangle, so the photographer's chance comes when it climbs to sing or slips onto an open twig — learn the call, watch a known thicket, and wait. Soft light keeps the smooth grey from going flat and lets the black cap and chestnut undertail register.