The Spotted Catbird, Ailuroedus melanotis, also known as Black-eared Catbird, is a species of bowerbird

Bowerbird

Bowerbirds make up the bird family Ptilonorhynchidae. The family has 20 species in eight genera. These are medium-sized passerines, ranging from the Golden Bowerbird to the Great Bowerbird...

 which can be found in north Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, and the island of New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

. It is approximately 26–30 cm in length, and its coloring is emerald green, with faint black markings on the face and white streaks on the neck. The male and female are almost identical.

Spotted Catbird feeds mainly on fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

, seed

Seed

A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...

s, flowers, insects, and even on other birds' eggs and young. The breeding season is from September to December. Spotted Catbirds pair monogamously

Monogamy

Monogamy /Gr. μονός+γάμος - one+marriage/ a form of marriage in which an individual has only one spouse at any one time. In current usage monogamy often refers to having one sexual partner irrespective of marriage or reproduction...

, and lay one to three eggs each year. Incubation lasts 19–25 days.

The Spotted Catbird is extremely similar to the Green Catbird

Green Catbird

The Green Catbird, Ailuroedus crassirostris is a species of bowerbird found on subtropical forests along the east coast of Australia, from southeastern Queensland to southern New South Wales. Its colouring is emerald green, with faint black markings on the face and white streaks on the neck.Green...

, and are considered the same species by some.

Widespread and common throughout its large range, the Spotted Catbird is evaluated as Least Concern on IUCN Red List

IUCN Red List

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , founded in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species...

of Threatened Species.

External links

• BirdLife Species Factsheet
• IUCN Red List
• Audio recording at Freesound
• http://ibc.lynxeds.com/species/black-eared-catbird-ailuroedus-melanotis