Species Spotlight

Species Spotlight: Grey Catbird

July 31, 2026 by Kai Pflug No Comments

How could I not write a post about a bird with this name?

This is a real cat, Wolfie, one of the 13 sharing my apartment with me.

The HBW profile starts promisingly: “The Gray Catbird was named for its mewing call …” but then disappointingly continues “… although few people would mistake the sound of this bird for that of an actual cat.”

Notice the two spellings of grey/gray? This is also taken from HBW—the profile title is “Grey Catbird,” while the profile text then uses “Gray Catbird.” A small inconsistency, but somehow exactly the kind of thing you don’t want to see in a name-based bird.

The German common name is more decisive: “Katzendrossel,” which at least commits fully to the feline connection.

The Grey Catbird (Gray Catbird) apparently doesn’t sound much like a cat, but it does adjust its vocalizations to the environment. In noisier settings, minimum, maximum, and peak frequencies all shift upward (source). In other words, it sings louder to be heard over the background noise—an entirely reasonable strategy, even if it does take some of the romance out of it.

Interestingly, adult catbirds defend early-season young more strongly than those raised later in the season (source). This fits with parental investment theory: when offspring have higher expected survival, parents seem willing to put in more effort. Evolution, economics, and ornithology all start to look oddly similar at that point.

No catbirds here in Shanghai—but we have cats.

Written by Kai Pflug
Kai has lived in Shanghai for 22 years. He only started birding after moving to China, so he is far more familiar with Chinese birds than the ones back in his native Germany. As a birder, he considers himself strictly average and tries to make up for it with photography, which he shares on a separate website. Alas, most of the photos are pretty average as well. He hopes that few clients of his consulting firm—focused on China’s chemical industry—ever find this blog, as it might raise questions about his professional priorities. Much of his time is spent either editing posts for 10,000 Birds or cleaning the litter boxes of his numerous indoor cats. He occasionally considers writing a piece comparing the two activities.