Black-eared catbird

The black-eared catbird (Ailuroedus melanotis) is a species of bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchidae) which can be found in far north Queensland, Australia and the island of New Guinea, including its surrounding islands. They are named after their cat-like wails and black ear spot. It is described by its Latin name: ailur-cat, oidos-singing, melas-black and otus-ear.^[1]

Until 2016, A. melanotis was given the english common name of spotted catbird, this name has now been re-assigned to A. maculosus. Martin Irestedt and colleagues examined the black-eared, spotted- and green catbird species complex genetically and found there were seven distinct lineages: the green catbird (A. crassirostris) of eastern Australia and the spotted catbird (A. maculosus) of eastern Queensland being the earliest offshoots, followed by the Huon catbird (A. astigmaticus) and black-capped catbird (A. melanocephalus) of eastern New Guinea, the Arfak catbird (A. arfakianus) of the Bird's Head (Vogelkop) Peninsula, the northern catbird (A. jobiensis) of central-northern New Guinea, and black-eared catbird (A.melanotis) of southwestern New Guinea, Aru Islands and far North Queensland.^[2] These latter six species were all formerly subspecies before being split from A. melanotis.

Subspecies

Three subspecies are recognized:^[3]

• A. m. facialis – Mayr, 1936: found on southern slopes of montane west-central New Guinea
• A. m. melanotis – Gray, 1858: found on lowland south-central New Guinea and Aru Islands
• A. m. joanae – Mathews, 1941: found on eastern Cape York Peninsula (northeastern Australia)

References