birds free wallpaper 99: Green Catbird

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

Green Catbird

Green Catbird Biography
The Green Catbird of eastern

Australia

gets its name from the cat-like wailing call that it gives at any time of day throughout the year. Catbirds are not shy, but because they inhabit lush rainforest, they are often difficult to see among the foliage in the treetops, and their characteristic calls usually alert people to their presence. Although they often occur in the canopy, catbirds forage at all levels of the forest, down to the ground, where they sometimes associate with Regent and Satin Bowerbirds.

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.

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.

The Green Catbird is found along the east coast of Australia, from south-eastern Queensland to southern New South Wales. The Green Catbird is found in temperate and sub-tropical rainforest and paperbarks, and sometimes adjacent eucalypt forest.

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.

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.

Green Catbird