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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Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. 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 and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
My guess is your catbird is anting.
@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.