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Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter
Issued on March 19, 2020, from the forest just west of Tepakán; elev. ~9m (~30 ft), N21.053°, W89.052°; north-central Yucatán state, MÉXICO
BLACK CATBIRD
The Yucatan is home to two catbird species. One, the Gray Catbird is only a winter visitor, the rest of the year commonly seen near dense cover in most of the US and southern Canada. The other catbird species is the Black Catbird, shown below:
Black Catbirds occur only in the Yucatan Peninsula, where it resides year round. Many birders never see it, or they mistake it for one of several other black birds found here, especially the Melodious Blackbird. However, the Black Catbird's beak is slenderer than theirs -- as seen in the inset of the above picture -- and is less heavily built. Also, it's much more secretive and solitary than the other species.
Nowadays a Black Catbird visits the hut area every day, feeding on the Bull-horn Acacias' opening legumes. I know when he arrives because he makes a harsh rrriah, as Steve Howell describes it. It's a little like the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher's buzzy call, except lower, louder, gruffer, completely devoid of the "excited" or somehow expressive gnatcatcher call.
Unlike other bird species feeding on the Bull-horn Acacia's legumes, who land in the tree and forage in it, this Black Catbird flies into a nearby tree, then makes quick visits, in mid-air speedily snatching from the split-open legume its seed-bearing pulp. Then the bird returns to its perch, deals with the pulp, and sallies forth again. As soon as he's visited three or four pods, he disappears, not to be seen until the next day.