New World catbird
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 Gray Catbird
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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
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).
[edit] 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
- 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.
[edit] 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
