Black-eared catbird

Black-eared catbird
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Ptilonorhynchidae
Genus: Ailuroedus
Species: A. melanotis
Binomial name
Ailuroedus melanotis
Gray, 1858

The black-eared catbird (Ailuroedus melanotis) is a species of bowerbird (Ptilonorhyncidae) 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 also known as the Black-eared catbird which is described in its Latin name: ailur-cat, oidos-singing, melas-black and otus-ear.[1]

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]

References

  1. Lederer, R. and Burr, C. 2014. Latin for Birdwatchers. – Allen & Unwin.
  2. Irestedt, Martin; Batalha-Filho, Henrique; Roselaar, Cees S.; Christidis, Les; Ericson, Per G. P. "Contrasting phylogeographic signatures in two Australo-Papuan bowerbird species complexes (Aves: Ailuroedus)". Zoologica Scripta. doi:10.1111/zsc.12163.
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