The black-capped catbird (''Ailuroedus melanocephalus'') is a species of

bowerbird Bowerbirds () make up the bird family Ptilonorhynchidae. They are renowned for their unique courtship behaviour, where males build a structure and decorate it with sticks and brightly coloured objects in an attempt to attract a mate. The family ...

(Ptilonorhynchidae), native to southeastern

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

. This species was formerly considered a subspecies of the

spotted catbird The spotted catbird (''Ailuroedus maculosus'') is a species of bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchidae) which can be found in north Queensland, the eastern Moluccas and New Guinea.Higgins, P.J., Peter, J.M. and Cowling, S.J. 2006. Handbook of Australian, Ne ...

before being reclassified as a distinct species in 2016. Martin Irestedt and colleagues examined the black-eared, spotted- and

green catbird The green catbird (''Ailuroedus crassirostris'') is a species of bowerbird found in subtropical forests along the east coast of Australia, from southeastern Queensland to southern New South Wales. It is named after its distinctive call which soun ...

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 The Arfak catbird (''Ailuroedus arfakianus'') is a species of bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchidae) which can be found in the Bird's Head Peninsula, Bird's Head (Vogelkop) Peninsula in western New Guinea. This species was formerly considered a subspecie ...

(''A. arfakianus'') of the Bird's Head (Vogelkop) Peninsula, the

northern catbird The Northern catbird (''Ailuroedus jobiensis'') is a species of bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchidae) which can be found in central-northern New Guinea. This species was formerly considered a subspecies of the spotted catbird before being reclassified a ...

(''A. jobiensis'') of central-northern New Guinea, and black-eared catbird (''A.melanotis'') of southwestern New Guinea, Aru Islands and far North Queensland.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q24997894 black-capped catbird Birds of the Papuan Peninsula black-capped catbird