Green Catbird
Click to enlarge image
© arronsphoto/Flikr
Fast Facts
-
Classification
- Genus
- Ailuroedus
- Species
- crassirostris
- Family
- Ptilonorhynchidae
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Class
- Aves
- Phylum
- Chordata
-
- Size Range
- 24 cm to 33 cm
Large, stout, green body with white spots, red eyes.
Identification
Large, stout, green bird, spotted white, with a dusky crown, nape and face and a white bill. The eye is red. Juveniles are duller in colour.
Habitat
Temperate and sub-tropical rainforest and paperbarks, and sometimes adjacent eucalypt forest.
Distribution
Eastern Australia.
Feeding and diet
Their diet consists of fruit, notably figs, flowers, and other plant material; they have also been known to kill baby birds to feed young during the breeding season and will eat small reptiles too.
Communication
They have a cat-like mewing call; sometimes likened to the cry of a human baby.
Breeding behaviours
Although they belong to the bowerbird family, the males of this species do not build bowers and only mate with one female, helping her to defend and feed their offspring. They usually feed in pairs or small groups, moving from tree to tree in the mid to upper canopy.
