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Rather plain but with lots of personality, the Gray Catbird often hides in the shrubbery, making an odd variety of musical and harsh sounds -- including the catlike mewing responsible for its name. At other times it moves about boldly in the open, jerking its long tail expressively. Most catbirds winter in the southern United States or the tropics, but a few linger far to the north if they have access to a reliable source of berries or a well-stocked bird feeder.

This bird's famous song, with its varied repetitions and artful imitations, is heard all day during nesting season (and often all night as well). Very common in towns and cities, especially in southern areas, the Mockingbird often seeks insects on open lawns. When running in the open it may stop every few feet and partly spread its wings, flashing the white wing patches. Mockingbirds are bold in defense of their nests, attacking cats and even humans that venture too close.

The big, foxy-red Brown Thrasher is a familiar bird over much of the east. Sometimes it forages boldly on open lawns; more often it scoots into dense cover at any disturbance, hiding among the briar tangles and making loud crackling callnotes. Although the species spends most of its time close to the ground, the male Brown Thrasher sometimes will deliver its rich, melodious song of doubled phrases from the top of a tall tree.

Of the various thrashers in the southwestern deserts, the Curve-bill is the most familiar and most often seen. It makes itself more conspicuous than the rest, dashing about in the open, calling a loud whit-wheet! from the tops of mesquites. This thrasher readily moves into suburbs and cities in the Southwest as long as some native vegetation is planted there -- especially cholla cactus, its top choice for nest sites.

A localized resident of the Bahamas and a few other islands in the western Caribbean, this hefty mockingbird has strayed to southern Florida on a number of occasions since the early 1970s. One male returned for several springs to Key West, where it may have interbred with local Northern Mockingbirds.

Several kinds of dull gray-brown thrashers occur in the West, but this is the only one along the California coast. The bird's normal range is limited to California and a corner of Baja, but within that range it is quite common in the chaparral, even coming into brushy suburbs. It spends most of its time on the ground, walking and running with its tail often held high, stopping to dig in the dirt with its sickle-shaped bill.

Only distantly related to our Northern Mockingbird, this slaty-blue Mexican specialty is an elusive skulker of dense thickets. It has strayed north very rarely into southern Arizona, where some individuals have been known to linger for several months.

This well-named bird is seldom found in summer away from stands of sagebrush. Smaller and shorter-billed than most thrashers, it may suggest a washed-out robin. During the breeding season, its melodious song can be heard incessantly at dawn on the sagebrush flats. The Sage Thrasher is sometimes elusive; if pursued closely it may seem to disappear, only to pop up on a bush top a hundred yards away.