FEATHERED CHARACTERS

     Gray as the shadows in the thickets of shrubbery and vines they lurk in, gray catbirds are one of three kinds of mimics in the eastern United States, which also includes northern mockingbirds and brown thrashers.  These related bird species are so-named because catbirds and mockingbirds imitate sounds they hear, including bird songs.  One might think they are listening to a whole yard full of different kinds of birds, only to realize later they are really hearing one catbird or mocker.  These three kinds of mimics also have other characteristics that make them feathered characters.

     These eastern mimics live and nest in dark, protective thickets on lawns, in hedgerows between fields and along woodland borders with fields, where they also procure much of their food of invertebrates during summer.  And each type of mimidae has its own niche in thickets, which reduces competition for food among these related species.  That separation of birds into diverse niches also created the different species.  Mockers adapt to younger shrubbery, such as in new housing developments and recently abandoned pastures.  Catbirds seem to prefer older thickets where they clamber among the twigs while thrashers seem to be more on the ground under the shrubbery.

     Mimidae have similarly-shaped bodies and long tails, and are about the size of American robins.  But each kind has its own traits as well, including songs, and feather colors and patterns.  Catbirds are slate-gray with a black cap.  Mockers are light-gray with white markings on wings and tails.  Thrashers are warm-brown on top and white below, with rows of black streaks on the white.  And all these species raise young in thickets, starting around mid-May.  

     Mockingbirds are permanent residents, wherever they hatch.  But their own population pressures and milder winters pushed many of them north into the northeastern United States during the 1950's. 

     When foraging for invertebrates on short-grass lawns, mockers sometimes flash the white patches on their wings, perhaps as a signal to others of their kind.  Male mockers often sing during moon-lit, summer nights, which is neat to hear, especially when they are imitating the songs of other bird species.  In winter, each mockingbird stakes out a thicket loaded with berries as its winter territory.  It consumes many of those berries and tries to defend the rest from other types of berry-eating birds, including starlings, waxwings, American robins and other kinds of birds, but sometimes to no avail.  The mocker may have to move, or starve.  Some mockingbirds also visit bird feeders in winter, to ingest suet and seeds.

     Catbirds seem to be everywhere there is a thicket, or planted shrubbery, to nest in.  They skulk carefully and quietly around their cradles in shrubbery or tangles of vines.  Even their lovely songs can be hushed, as if they are singing to themselves.  Interestingly, catbirds also utter a meowing call, perhaps as a warning of potential danger.  That call, of course, gives them their common name.  When I used to mow our lawn, I would see small, brown moths flush out before the power mower.  And I remember a catbird saw them, too, and flashed out to grab them in his beak and eat them.  

     I think brown thrashers are the prettiest of the mimidae, but also the least likely seen, although I have seen families of them on lawns, and in various thickets over the years.  They skulk on the ground under shrubbery much of the time where their brown feathering camouflages them.  They also have strong legs and do lots of dashing on foot under thickets, reminding me of roadrunners, which are in the American cuckoo family.       

     Mimidae are interesting characters that are well worth knowing, and having as neighbors.  They brighten many thickets with songs and antics.  And they consume many invertebrates during summer.