The body length of the cat's mockingbird is from 21 to 24 cm, the wings are short rounded, the tail is long rounded. The plumage is gray, the cap and tail are black, the bottom is chestnut-colored. The short beak is black, as are the eyes and paws. Eastern populations are darker in color than western ones. Male and female are similar. The bird imitates the cries of other songbirds, and also "meows."
Feline mockingbird is common in Canada in British Columbia , Alberta , Saskatchewan and Manitoba , in the USA from Oregon to New Mexico and in the east to the coast. It winters in the southeastern United States, in Mexico along the east coast and in the Caribbean. The bird lives in dense thickets, on forest edges and glades, on abandoned farms and rivers, avoiding the area where there are too many coniferous trees.
Feline mockingbird is active during the day, hiding in the bush. Usually it flies only short distances from branch to branch, avoiding overflights. The bird is looking for insects, seeds and berries on the ground.
The nesting season lasts from April until early August. At this time, the monogamous bird usually lays eggs twice. A nest is built in bushes or among the thick lower branches of trees, sometimes from scraps of paper. The female lays from 2 to 5 blue eggs and hatch one for about 2 weeks. Both parent birds hide their chicks under the wing and feed them with small invertebrates. On days 10–11, young birds take to the wing, in the next 12 days they become independent, and in a year they are mature.
Often, a brown-headed cow corpse lays its eggs in the nest of a feline mockingbird, but, as a rule, a feline mockingbird recognizes its own eggs and gets rid of strangers. However, if the brown-headed cow corpse quickly replaces the discarded eggs, the cat's mockingbird is so confusing that it begins to take other people's eggs for its own and throws its own eggs out of the nest. However, this happens quite rarely.
