Green Catbird

Overview

The green catbird (Ailuroedus crassirostris) is a medium-sized bowerbird species native to Australia. It is named for its distinctive call, which resembles a cat meowing or a crying child.

Identification

• Brilliant emerald green plumage on the back, wings, and rump, contrasting with a greenish-brown head mottled with black and pale buff.
• Conspicuous pure white spots at the tips of the tertials and secondaries, forming two white wing-bars, with a brownish-emerald tail featuring white tips.
• Medium-sized and stocky build with long, powerful greyish-brown legs and a long, stout horn-coloured bill.
• Bright red iris with a partial white eye-ring; sexes are very similar in appearance, though juveniles are duller.

Habitat

Found in subtropical and temperate rainforests, paperbarks, and occasionally adjacent eucalypt forest along the east coast of Australia, from southeastern Queensland to southern New South Wales. The average home range is two hectares, which reduces during the breeding season, and territories often contain several fig trees.

Diet

Mainly frugivorous, feeding on native, introduced, or cultivated figs and vegetable matter such as buds, shoots, flowers, and seeds. The diet is supplemented with insects like grasshoppers and cicadas, as well as small vertebrates including tree frogs and hatchlings. Foraging is active and wary, moving from limb to limb in the mid to upper strata of trees.

Did you know?

Unlike most male bowerbirds, the male green catbird does not build a bower but instead clears an open area to display colourful fruits, flowers, and leaves in his beak to attract females. The species is monogamous, with pairs mating for life and maintaining their bond through daily feeding and duet calls.