The
Catbird is so named due to its cat-like sounds. Besides such sounds it can
make beautiful melodic whistles and songs. This is the view most people
are familiar with, a dark gray bird with a black cap. However, this bird
also has a red area under its tail. It took me a while to take a suitable
picture, but look at the second picture!
As
you can see, the Catbird has a red coloring under its tail... These birds are
very friendly and usually are not scared of people. This particular one
made a nest in the top of a forsythia bush I planted behind our house.
The
bush is next to the house near the old deck as you can see in the picture on the
left.
The
pair would fly to the bush often with twigs and grass. Well, one day I
checked, and there were three lovely blue eggs. The Catbird eggs are a darker
blue than the eggs of the Bluebird. Also, since the bird is larger, the
eggs are larger than those of the Bluebird.
Not
long after I saw the eggs, I saw these two babies. Apparently, the third
egg did not hatch. These babies are only a day or two old, eyes still
closed. Below are a set of pictures as the babies grew progressively
older. It is amazing how much growth baby birds go through in just a few
days! Note one of them is still underneath, hiding its head in some of the
pictures. These pictures are at 3, 4, 5, and 8 days of age!
Three
days
Four
days
Five
days
Eight
Days
