Food
Omnivorous. Mainly fruit but also small flowers, flower buds, leaves and stems, and some animals, including insects and other invertebrates, and small birds, their eggs and young.
Black-eared Catbird (Ailuroedus melanotis) [XC388883]
by Marc Anderson from Lake Murray, Middle Fly, Western Province, Papua New Guinea (call)
Black-eared Catbird (Ailuroedus melanotis) [XC121626]
by Marc Anderson from Mile 50, Freeport, Papua, Indonesia (song)
Nest
Large, bowl-shaped, composed of long twigs, scraps of dry wood and broad leaves, lined with twigs and vine-tendrils, usually placed near the top of a bushy sapling in dense forest, from 1 - 10 m above the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
1 - 3, usually 2; slightly lustrous, plain cream or cream-buff; oval; about 39 - 44 x 25 - 30 mm. Incubation: 23 - 24 days; by female.
Young
Fledge in about 3 weeks.
Subspecies
Probably forms a superspecies with Green Catbird (Ailuroedus crassirostris) and sometimes considered conspecific.
The following 10 subspecies are recognised:
misoliensis (Gray, 1858) - West Papuan Is (Misool). Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Arfak Catbird (Ailuroedus arfakianus).
arfakianus A. B. Meyer, 1874 - Mountains of Vogelkop (Tamrau and Arfak), Onin Peninsula (Fakfak Mts), Bomberai Peninsula (Kumawa Mts) and Wandammen Mts, in north-western New Guinea. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Arfak Catbird (Ailuroedus arfakianus).
jobiensis Rothschild, 1895 - Bewani Mts, Torricelli Mts, Prince Alexander Mts, middle Idenburg R and Adelbert Mts, in northern New Guinea.
facialis Mayr, 1936 - Nassau Mts and Oranje Mts, in western New Guinea.
guttaticollis Stresemann, 1922 - Hunstein Range, Sepik R and Jimi R, in north-eastern New Guinea.
astigmaticus Mayr, 1931 - Mountains of Huon Peninsula, in north-eastern New Guinea.
melanotis (Gray, 1858) - Aru Is, and lowland Trans-Fly region of southern New Guinea.
melanocephalus E. P. Ramsay, 1883 - Mountains of south-eastern New Guinea eastern from Herzog Mts in northern and Mt Karimui (and possibly Kratke Mts) in south.
joanae Mathews, 1941 - Eastern Cape York Peninsula (Pascoe R and Iron Range areas south to Rocky R, in McIlwraith Range), in northern Queensland (north-eastern Australia).
maculosus E. P. Ramsay, 1875 - Wet tropics of northern Queensland from Big Tableland south to Seaview Range and Mt Halifax.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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BirdLife International Species Factsheet