Gray Catbird stalking my briefcase (1 Viewer)

Today I was at the park sitting on a bench with my briefcase beside me when a Gray Catbird landed on the floor within two feet of me. It stared at me, scooted around a bit, and ten minutes later it was back, same thing.

An hour later I was standing some fifty feet away and dropped some sunflower seeds around, when what appeared to be the same bird came by again and was hanging around just a few feet away. It grabbed one sunflower seed but didn't seem interested in it. It just hopped around a bit. A short while later I was standing some twenty feet away from my briefcase and the Catbird landed right on my briefcase and bent down while on it as if it was sniffing the briefcase.

A quick web search did indeed show that Gray Catbirds have a developed sense of smell that they use for navigation. I did have a half finished container of sardines in my briefcase from lunch so maybe that's what it was. But Catbirds are described as secretive and shy so it's kind of surprising that it would come over so close to me.

Please comment. Does this ever happen that they get really attracted to smells like this?

Not that I’ve ever heard of. My guess is that your bird wasn’t sniffing at the briefcase but was peering or listening. . ..

It's really strange though. What could it be looking for? And to come so close to a person? What about the fact that they have a very good sense of smell?

it has probably been fed there by someone, maybe with a similar case. the smell of sardines wouldnt necessarily attract it but who knows? repeat the visit and see if it is conditioned, coincidental or repeated is all you can do. odd things happen. mine was blackbirds appreciating jazz. probably coincidence. where we look for patterns in behaviour they arent usually so complex but do have memory.

A catbird in New York city will start with a higher-than-normal tolerance for people, and I'm guessing this one has been fed. Getting within touching distance is pretty common in that case. It's entirely possible that smell has something to do with it, but I don't know how you'd test that idea.