Family: Green Catbird (Ailuroedus crassirostris) belongs to the family Ptilonorhynchidae.
Range: From southeastern Queensland to southern New South Wales, the green catbird lives in subtropical forests. Wet tropical rainforests of Far North Queensland are home to the green catbird, which looks like a spotted catbird.
Habitats: The green catbird breeds monogamously. Females who accept a male for life will remain together for the rest of their lives. Males maintain pair bonding by feeding their females all year long, as well as by calling in duets. Usually seen in pairs, green catbirds socialize in groups of three to five at the end of the breeding season, when their young are still somewhat dependent on their parents. As they forage in trees, green catbirds move from limb to limb in the mid-to-upper strata, active and wary.
Other Names: A Spotted Catbird, or Black-eared Catbird, is another name for the bird.
Size: The Green Catbird measures 240-320 mm in length; the smallest is found on the Cape York Peninsula while the largest is found on the mid-east coast.
Identification: ADULTS: A black spotted buff crown and nape (the Cape York race) to a plain green speckled white nape (the mid-east coast race). The rest of the upper parts, wings, and tail are emerald green. White feathers cover the inner flight feathers, wing coverts, and tail feathers except for the central pair.
A white half-ring behind the eye and a white patch on the side of the neck is present on the mid-east coast, with mottled dusky, white, and buff markings on the face, with plain black ear coverts (Cape York) or green-brown speckled cream ear coverts (Cape York).
A dusky chin, white throat, dusky brown breast with coarse buff-white spots, a cream-buff belly, flanks, and undertail (Cape York); to brownish green on chin and throat grading to green over breasts and flanks and lemon on belly and undertail with fine white streaking on breast and flanks (mid-east coast). The eyes are vermilion in color. Bone cream is the color of the bill. Grey is the color of the feet.
Immatures: The head is duller and greener as an adult, less mottled in northern races; the upper parts are duller with a blue tint. Breasts and bellies are greener with finer spotting (northern races) or coarser streaking (mid-east coast races); eyes are brown, remaining that color for several years. In the second year, adult plumage develops.
Call: Green Catbirds call sharply, carrying clicking sounds when feeding, repeated at intervals, possibly in contact. It has been observed that the call varies from a short, recognizable “heeer-I-aaar” to a long, drawn-out, quavering version: “heeeeeir-Ieeee-aaaa-aaarra”. It may be an alarm call or a display that causes the harsh rasping.
Song: Birds sing in a nasal, grinding wail, like a cat’s miaow or baby’s cry, yiiaaooow, often falling and rising in pitch, repeated at intervals; northern races are shorter than southern races. Two or three guttural cries are followed by several clicking notes during the dawn display.
Breeding: Nesting and breeding season lasts from September to January. An average bird’s home range is five acres, though this is greatly reduced during the breeding season. The breeding territory of the catbird usually contains a number of fig trees that produce fruit regularly on a regular basis for several months during the breeding season. Water pools in tree crevices or water courses are used by green catbirds to drink and bathe.
Nest: The bird’s nest is a large, bulky deep cup 230-250 mm across, 120-150 mm deep, made up of large dried leaves and twigs, which are bound with leaves and vine tendrils, sometimes surrounded by loose leaves and twigs; lined with leaves, stems and vine tendrils; placed upright in dense tree foliage, vine tangles or crowns of tree fern, 223 m above ground.
Eggs: Generally, Green Catbirds lay two to three eggs, each of which is cream or cream-buff in color and measures 39-44 x 25-30 mm. There is a 23-24-day incubation period, which is carried out by the female. About three weeks after hatching, the young bird flies.
Diet: As omnivorous birds, green catbirds eat figs, buds, shoots, flowers, seeds, and a variety of vegetables (native, introduced, or cultivated). As their naturally occurring food sources diminish, catbirds may also be seen in cultivated fruit orchards. A variety of insects, including grasshoppers, cicadas, beetles, millipedes, mites, and small vertebrates, including tree frogs and hatchlings of smaller birds, are also a part of their diet.
Distribution: From the Iron Range to Mcilwraith Range, Cape York Peninsula, Helensvale to the Paluma Range, Queensland, to Narooma, NSW, the Green Catbird is found in tropical and subtropical rainforests along the east coast and adjacent ranges. In addition, it is found in New Guinea, Aru Islands, and Misool. Australia has only three races out of nine or ten.
Other Facts:
Kingdom: Animalia
Binomial name: Ailuroedus crassirostris
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Passeriformes
Genus: Ailuroedus
Class: Aves
Family: Ptilonorhynchidae
Species: A. crassirostris
