Gray Catbird

My last post was of a common grackle that I thought was a boat-tailed grackle. Another "first" bird I saw in Central Park in New York was also a bird I thought was a boat-tailed grackle, and like the common grackle, I only took two photos because I thought I'd seen it previously. I was pretty shocked when I lightened up my photo and the body of a gray bird with a cap and rust-colored undertail emerged. This was another bird I'd never heard of before. 

It is only found east of the Rocky Mountains and it looks like it is a year-round resident of New York City. While it summers and breeds up into Canada, it is a year-round resident along most of the east coast of the U.S. down through Georgia and is a winter resident of Florida and the Gulf Coast down through Mexico and much of the way through Central America. 

Gray Catbird range from Wikipedia. 

It is a relative of the thrashers and mockingbirds and is even called the slate-colored mockingbird in some areas. It is mostly gray, has a dark-brown cap, rust colored undertail coverts and a black eye and bill.