Catbirds are better known for their cat-like yowling calls, but that is actually their territorial ‘song’. In winter, the rainforest soundscape seems strangely muted without the territorial calls of catbirds, but when the season warms sufficiently their resonating cries once again fill the forest with fornicating-feline familiarity.
The recording below was from a rowdy bunch of catbirds in the forest near my place. I think they were sorting out an epic territorial boundary dispute. The contact calls are those short, high-pitched, insect-like ‘tink’ calls. Although the situation was very dynamic, with at least 6 individual catbirds calling and clambering about, I arrived at a hypothesis that the bond-partners were using the contact ‘tink’ calls as a way to reinforce or communicate the strength of their partnership to the rival birds.
I could be wrong of course, but after cross-checking with my good friend Dr Brian (‘Hawkeye’) Hawkins, it seems like a reasonable postulation. Once you get your ear in for these calls, you’ll start to appreciate there’s a complex conversation of territorial definition and group feedback going on here, not simply a bramble of noise.