This is a catbird. A Gray Catbird to be precise.
And this is a catbird seat.
So there you have it. (Just kidding.)
“Sitting in the catbird seat" means—as you may know-- having the upper hand. Sitting pretty. Got it made.
It probably originated in the south. Some say it stems from how a Gray Catbird will sit in the top of a tree to sing. Except they don’t much. They prefer to skulk around in low shrubs. And they usually do their singing from there. So I guess that leaves room for interpretation on how they might have the upper hand.
Who exactly came up with this one I can’t say. But I can say who made it famous. Well maybe I can.
By most accounts a baseball announcer named Red Barber picked it up in a poker game in the south and started using it in his broadcasts for the Dodgers. About the same time it showed up in the James Thurber story: The Catbird Seat. Barber said that’s where he first saw it. You’d think he’d know. Trouble is the story names him. And says he used it during Dodger broadcasts. When questioned he stuck to his guns.
Confusing. Both stories can’t be true. So hmm.
Pretty obvious to me. Old Red didn’t want his wife to know he was in that poker game.
The name Catbird comes from the fact that the little mimic likes to make sounds like a cat. Pretty good ones.
I got these photos in New England last month.
Catbirds are very common in the east but not in San Diego or anywhere in the west, so I was excited to hear the famous “mew.”
I made this recording. I admit it isn’t great, but I wanted you to at least hear how they sound.
:) OK. Maybe not.
Then try this: Real Gray Catbird sounds
