Catbirds
New World Catbirds:
The New World catbirds are a group of passerine birds in the family Mimidae which also includes mockingbirds and thrashers.
These birds produce a wide variety of sounds including cat-like barks. They are generally found in brushy habitats.
The species are
- Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), a common bird in North America
- Black Catbird (Melanoptila glabrirostris), an uncommon bird in Central America: The Black Catbird is a species of bird in the Mimidae family. It is found in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, and heavily degraded former forest. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Among the Mimidae, these represent basal lineages probably closer to the Caribbean thrasher and trembler assemblage than to the mockingbirds and Toxostoma thrashers (Hunt et al. 2001, Barber et al. 2004).
Unrelated Catbirds
The New World catbirds are not to be confused with nor are related to the following four bird species of the family Ptilonorhynchidae (bowerbirds). These also make cat-like sounds:
- White-eared Catbird, Ailuroedus buccoides : It is found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.
- Spotted Catbird, Ailuroedus melanotis
- Green Catbird, Ailuroedus crassirostris
- Tooth-billed Catbird, Scenopooetes dentirostris
The Abyssinian Catbird (Parophasma galinieri) is another unrelated bird (an Old World babbler) also named for its voice.
References
- Barber, Brian R.; Martínez-Gómez, Juan E. & Peterson, A. Townsend (2004): Systematic position of the Socorro mockingbird Mimodes graysoni. J. Avian Biol. 35: 195-198. doi:10.1111/j.0908-8857.2004.03233.x (HTML abstract)
- Hunt, Jeffrey S.; Bermingham, Eldredge; & Ricklefs, Robert E. (2001): Molecular systematics and biogeography of Antillean thrashers, tremblers, and mockingbirds (Aves: Mimidae). Auk 118(1): 35–55. doi:10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118[0035:MSABOA]2.0.CO;2 HTML fulltext without images
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