Ailuroedus crassirostris, Green Catbird on branch. Click to enlarge image
Ailuroedus crassirostris, Green Catbird on branch. Photographer:arronsphoto/Flikr Image: arronsphoto/Flikr
© 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.



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.