Gray Catbird

A pair of catbirds are clearly nesting just beyond our back fence. The nest is entirely hidden, but we see both parents regularly bringing food and disappearing into the bushes.  This is happening only in the last day or so--the chicks must have just hatched.

I sat out with my camera late this cloudy afternoon for 40 minutes--I had many shots, and this was in the last series. I'm happy to capture the dark red or rufous coloring under the rump, although it's less uniform than what I've typically seen (and illustrated in bird books). My previous catbird blip also showed the rufous underrump, but very faintly.