The black-eared catbird (''Ailuroedus melanotis'') is a species of bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchidae) which can be found northern

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and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

, 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. Until 2016, ''A. melanotis'' was given the English common name of

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 ...

, this name has now been reassigned to ''A. maculosus''. 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 (''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. These latter six species were all formerly subspecies before being split from ''A. melanotis''.

Subspecies

Three subspecies are recognized:IOC v.6.3 * ''Ailuroedus melanotis facialis'' –

Mayr Mayr is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Andrea Mayr (born 1979), Austrian female long-distance runner * Ernst Mayr (1904–2005), German American evolutionary biologist * Georg Mayr (1564–1623), Bavarian Jesuit pries ...

, 1936: found on southern slopes of montane west-central New Guinea * ''Ailuroedus melanotis melanotis'' –

Gray Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

, 1858: found on lowland south-central New Guinea and Aru Islands * ''Ailuroedus melanotis joanae'' – Mathews, 1941: found on eastern Cape York Peninsula (northeastern Australia)

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q604182 black-eared catbird Birds of New Guinea Birds of Cape York Peninsula black-eared catbird black-eared catbird