- Ailuroedus geislerorum
Identification
24,5cm.
- Tan crown with greenish tinge
- Mostly whitish ear-coverts (extending forwards to include lower lores), side of lower head and throat wit some black spotting
- Buff upper neck with large black feather tips forming broad spotted collar
- Rich parrot-green upperparts, upperwing and uppertail
- Brownish-olive flight-feathers with broad paler cream trailing edges
- Pale terminal spot on outer web of each secondary
- Pale cinnamon-white underparts with bold black spots
- Dark brown undertail
- Deep red eye
- Whitish bill
Sexes similar, females are smaller than males. Juveniles have a duller crown, less black and more dilute buff underparts with more greenish wash.
Similar species
Smaller than Spotted Catbird with unmarked crown and prominent white ear-coverts.
Distribution
Northern and southeastern New Guinea and adjacent islands.
Common and widespread in its range.
Taxonomy
Formerly included in White-eared Catbird together with Ochre-breasted Catbird.
Subspecies
Two subspecies are recognized[1].
- A. g. geislerorum on Yapen Island and northern New Guinea east to the Huon Peninsula
- A. g. molestus in the lowlands of southeastern New Guinea (north side of Owen Stanley Range)
Habitat
Found in forest and sometimes at forest edge. Occurs from sea-level up to 800m, sometimes up to 1200m.
Behaviour
Feeds on fruits and insects. Takes also birds and nestlings.
Forages singly, in pairs or in small family groups among foliage. Sometimes in mixed-species flocks with other fruit-eating birds.
Breeding season varies trhough range. Courtship involves hopping on to and between sapling trunks and branches and vigorous chases on ground and through foliage. The nest is a bowl made of twigs with some large leaves, placed 2 - 3m above ground among bases of pandanus tree fronds or in a fork of a sapling. Lays 1 egg.
A resident species.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2016. IOC World Bird Names (version 6.2). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
- Del Hoyo, J, A Elliott, and D Christie, eds. 2009. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 14: Bush-shrikes to Old World Sparrows. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8496553507
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Tan-capped Catbird. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 7 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Tan-capped_Catbird
