Species: Dumetella carolinensis
Gray Catbird
Species
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Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
A 22-cm-long, dark gray bird with a sturdy, relatively straight bill, black cap, long black tail, and chestnut undertail coverts (NGS 1983).
Classification
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Craniata
Class
Aves
Order
Passeriformes
Family
Mimidae
Genus
Dumetella
NatureServe
Classification
Other Global Common Names
Grey Catbird - Maullador Gris - moqueur chat
Informal Taxonomy
Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Perching Birds
Formal Taxonomy
Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Passeriformes - Mimidae - Dumetella - Phillips (1986) and some others used the generic name LUCAR for this species, but LUCAR is not nomenclaturally available (Banks and Browning 1995). Placed in the family Sturnidae by Sibley and Ahlquist (1984).
Ecology and Life History
A 22-cm-long, dark gray bird with a sturdy, relatively straight bill, black cap, long black tail, and chestnut undertail coverts (NGS 1983).
Migration
false - true - true - Long-distance migrant throughout most of interior U.S. and Canada; migrations of coastal populations may be more localized. Common migrant in Costa Rica occasionally early September but not common before mid-October through mid-November; remain through late April or early May (Stiles and Skutch 1989).
Non-migrant
false
Locally Migrant
true
Food Comments
Eats insects and other invertebrates and small fruits (Terres 1980) and arillate seeds (Stiles and Skutch 1989). Picks insects from leaves and branches, sometimes from the ground.
Reproduction Comments
Clutch size is 2-6 (usually 4). Incubation, by female, lasts 12-15 days. Young are tended by both parents, leave nest at 10-15 days. Often two broods per year.
Ecology Comments
Sometimes in loose flocks in migration; scattered sedentary individuals in winter (Costa Rica, Stiles and Skutch 1989). Territorial in nonbreeding season in Mexico (Rappole and Warner 1980).
Length
22
Weight
37
Conservation Status
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G5
Global Status Last Reviewed
1996-12-03
Global Status Last Changed
1996-12-03
Other Status
LC - Least concern
Distribution
Conservation Status Map
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Global Range
H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - BREEDS: southern British Columbia across southern Canada to Nova Scotia, south to central New Mexico, Texas, central portions of Gulf states, and northern Florida; also in Bermuda. WINTERS: Atlantic coastal lowlands north to Long Island (and in very low numbers to southern New England), Gulf states to Panama, and West Indies.
Global Range Code
H
Global Range Description
>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)