Random Sunning Catbird

By Corey • August 15, 2010 • 2 comments

When leaving the East Pond of Jamaica Bay on Saturday we came across this sunning Gray Catbird. At first glance we thought it was dead, but it quickly became obvious it was just letting the cat part of its nature take over and just lazily enjoying the sun, probably hoping to cook the parasites off of itself. Because it was sitting right next to the only path out we had no choice but to disturb it, and as we approached the catbird quickly righted itself and flew off the trail into the bushes. Birds do some pretty random things…

Gray Catbird Dumetella carolinensis catching some rays

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Tags: catbirds, Jamaica Bay, mimids

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About the Author

Corey

Corey is a New Yorker who has lived most of his life upstate but has spent the last three years in Queens. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy, their son, Desmond Shearwater, and their two indoor cats, Hunter and B.B.

2 Responses to “Random Sunning Catbird”

Jack Aug 15th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
My guess is your catbird is anting.
Corey Aug 15th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
@Jack: We were actually thinking the same thing at first (well, after we ruled out the bird being dead) but we watched it for a couple of minutes and never saw an ant, and we looked where it was and there were no ants there.