Grey catbird in Italy ?

Hallo everyone, I have set up on my balcony a hanging bird feeder with home-made suet and sunflower seed balls. It is regularly visited by great tits, robins  and (unfortunately) very hungry blackbirds. In the last week I have noticed a new visitor: a grey bird just slightly larger than a robin with a weird tail-flicking behaviour and a reddish undertail (which I can distinctly see when it opens its wings and hovers close to the feeder for a few quick pecks at the balls).

I googled it up and it looks exactly like a grey catbird. I live in Milan, Italy, and I take it this bird is American and has been rarely sighted in Europe, the last sighting being in the UK (Cornwall) in October this year (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-45888326). I have taken a few amateurish photographs with an old camera and I would like to have your opinion on what kind of bird it actually is.

Thanks!

Paolo

  • Hi Paolo and welcome to the Forum. I don't think we've had anyone from Italy on here before.

    Not a Grey Catbird I'm afraid. It's a Black Redstart but an equally nice bird to have on your balcony.

  • Thank you so much  for the identification (and for the warm welcome from the UK)!! I agree: it's an attractive bird although it's not  "a celebrity".Do you know if it uses nesting boxes and what kind? Actually, there's a pair of them and I would like to lure them into nesting on the balcony.

  • This is our Black Redstart nesting box which we built from a design in a book. If you're interested I'll go & measure it up, but not today as very cold out there!

    We have a male that comes to feed in winter & it loves dried mealworms.

  • Hi there, I’m in Switzerland. In a small village in the mountains on the border of Austria and Italy. I spotted some similar birds in my garden some years ago and because they sing so crazily at night I thought they must be nightingales (somebody also suggested a grey catbird). Quite small birds with mousy brown feathers and beautiful orange under the tail which they’re constantly showing off with. They’re very playful & daring if I’m sitting outside. They don’t eat from the food things that the blue tits & great tits eat from. They hang out on the ground and eat from there. They always come back every year. Do you think they are redstarts too or is it possible they’re nightingales? Today I also spotted a little black bird (even it’s head & beak) very similar size with those same beautiful tail feathers. I couldn’t get any photos up till now. Would love to know what these are. Thank you in advance. Renata
  • Hi Paolo,

    I am currently living in Italy, further South than you are but we have definitely got the grey catbird here, I have heard it often from our garden and yesterday finally caught a glimpse of it. I will try and get a photograph if I can.
  • Cazia said:
    I will try and get a photograph if I can.

    I hope you do, I'm sure we will all be interested to see it.

  • Wow, just came across this thread and very interested in this bird and if we can get a picture of it too, best of luck Cazia.
  • We are due to leave where we have been living in a few days, if I had known how rare it was before now I would have been trying to get a photo for sure, will keep trying over the next few days. Definitely the grey catbird though, once heard never mistaken, mostly hear it early morning or at dusk, honestly thought it was a cat first time I heard it and went out looking for an injured cat under the trees then heard it above me and saw it fly off, been trying to get a photo or at least a sound recording since then.
  • We are due to leave where we have been living in a few days, if I had known how rare it was before now I would have been trying to get a photo for sure, will keep trying over the next few days. Definitely the grey catbird though, once heard never mistaken, mostly hear it early morning or at dusk, honestly thought it was a cat first time I heard it and went out looking for an injured cat under the trees then heard it above me and saw it fly off, been trying to get a photo or at least a sound recording since then.
  • Just saw a whole family of the grey catbird. The orange part of the tail feathers was only visible when the birds hovered to pick berries from Prunus laurocerasus, also known as cherry laurel, in our garden. Definitely grey and not black. With a dark beak, greyish black. And the family of at least four maybe more members here in Hamburg, Germany. We had extreme thunderstorms for the last few days and heavy rain. Today was milder and only drizzle. Hamburg is often directly in the path of winds and rain coming from England.
    2021.09.11. @± 18:00.