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Green Catbird

Did you know?

Although they belong to the bowerbird family, male Green Catbirds do not build bowers and only mate with one female, helping her to defend and feed their offspring.

Calls
Cat-like mewing; sometimes likened to the cry of a human baby.
Facts and Figures
Research Species: 
No
Minimum Size: 
24cm
Maximum Size: 
33cm
Average size: 
28cm
Average weight: 
207g
Breeding season: 
October to January
Clutch Size: 
2 to 3
Incubation: 
24 days
Nestling Period: 
22 days
Conservation Status
Federal: 
Secure
NSW: 
Vulnerable
NT: 
Not present
QLD: 
Secure
SA: 
Not present
TAS: 
Not present
VIC: 
Not present
WA: 
Not present
Basic Information
Scientific Name: 
Ailuroedus crassirostris
Atlas Number: 
676
What does it look like?
Description: 

The Green Catbird is a 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.

Similar species: 

The Spotted Catbird, A. melanotis, is extremely similar, but widely separated in its range. It tends to be much brighter green and paler below and has black markings on the head. The Green Catbird can also resemble the immature or female Satin Bowerbird, which has a distinctly blue eye, a dark bill and a more scalloped patterning on the underbody, while the upper body is a more olive-green.

Where does it live?
Distribution: 

The Green Catbird is found along the east coast of Australia, from south-eastern Queensland to southern New South Wales.

Habitat: 

The Green Catbird is found in temperate and sub-tropical rainforest and paperbarks, and sometimes adjacent eucalypt forest.

Seasonal movements: 

Sedentary.

What does it do?
Feeding: 

The Green Catbird eats fruit, notably figs, flowers, and other plant material. It will also kill baby birds to feed its own young during breeding season and will eat small reptiles too. They usually feed in pairs or small groups, moiving from tree to tree in the mid to upper canopy.

Breeding: 

Male Green Catbirds do not build a bower. They pair monogamously with a female, helping her to defend an all-purpose territory and feeding her throughout the year. The nest is a bulky cup of twigs, leaves and vines, usually in a prickly shrub, treefork, tree fern or low tree.The nest has an unusual layer of wet, soft wood beneath the lining of fine twigs and leaves, making the nest very large and bulky. Both sexes feed and look after the young.

References: 
Field guide to Australian Birds.
Field guide to the birds of Australia, 6th Edition
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