That's an American Robin..probably it is nesting nearby. Hopefully, you keep your cat indoors since roaming cats are a major song bird predator, plus they can be hurt themselves

I was afraid someone would say that! Isn't that too big to be a robin? Also, I thought Robin's were slicker & more pronounced black & brown than that?

Perhaps I've been calling some other bird a robin... LOL.

Thanks for the answer.

~Shannon

This is what I see when I think of Robins & what Wikipedia came up with:

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

I have indoor/outdoor cats that wear break-away collars w/ bells on them... The bells scare birds away before the cats can even get close to them. I bought these collars for the bird's sake, I love my birds & don't want them to be my cat's dinner! :)

Looks like a robin to me could be a juvie and why it's coloring is lighter.

Concerning bell collars, a little bird's brain doesn't have the reasoning abilities to know that a ringing bell means danger from anything let alone a cat. IMO that's just another marketing ploy by manufactures.

Hmmm, I guess we'll go w/ Robin, but I'm still not 100% convinced. :)

As for the collars, they seem to work around my house. Never had one of my cats catch a bird, but then again, maybe they just aren't that good at it. Also, I know that the birds don't relate a bell w/ a cat, but I do think that any strange noise is going to startle them enough to at least fly away & check things out from a distance, that's just MHO... I personally think animals are a lot smarter than ppl give them credit.

Anyway, thanks for the answers... Seems like this has turned into a discussion about cat collars than birds. :)

~Shannon

I'm 100% convinced it's an Am Robin. I can't even begin to try to turn it into something else.

-O-

Robins ARE big birds, relatively speaking-my Kaufman field guide says 10". This is from tip of bill to end of tail. As you watch birds you will be able to use a robin as a size guide. For instance when trying to identify a new bird we (birders) say "It was a grey, robin-sized bird but slimmer" (That was a vague description of a mockingbird.) Something that often fools me is how small a bird looks when not using binoculars. So often everything I look at is thru my bins, then I see a chipping sparrow on the ground and it is tiny!
Susan

Fledgling song birds spend a few days near the ground and are easy prey to domestic cats, along with unwary adults.

If a cat even scratches a bird, it can get blood poisoning, and cats are the only species to shed the dangerous Toxoplasma gondii parasites in their feces, which stay alive for outside for months and cause severe illness in infants and people with weakened immune systems

http://www.tnrrealitycheck.com/barn_cats.asp

Strangely, like some Star Trek episode, scientists have recently found that the dangerous Toxoplasma gondii parasites carried by cats force rats to seek out cats so they can be caught, the parasites can infect the cats, and they can complete their cycle

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9560048

Definitely an American Robin. No question about it. Not a Juvenile though -- they have pale speckles on their back and dark spots across their chest. This is probably a female, which would look noticeably lighter than a male.