Ailuroedus maculosus
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The spotted catbird (Ailuroedus maculosus) is a species of bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchidae) which can be found in north Queensland in Australia, the eastern Moluccas and New Guinea. Although it is a member of the bowerbird family, it does not build a bower.
Widespread and common throughout its large range, the spotted catbird is evaluated as Least Concern on IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is a chunky rainforest bird with emerald green upperparts, a black spot below the dark red eye, and green-olive underparts with extensive pale spotting. It inhabits the Wet Tropics of Queensland (Cairns region), and thus does not overlap with similar green catbird.
The spotted catbird is one of ten species in the genus Ailuroedus, the non bower-building bowerbirds. The noticeable difference between the two Australian dwelling species is the lack of black ear-coverts and reduction in dorsal spotting on A. cassirostris. Molecular evidence suggests Ailuroedus is a sister group to the other bowerbirds, diverging into the only genus within the eight species of Australian bowerbirds that is monogamous and does not build a bower or clear a court for mating. The other bowerbirds are polygynous... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daintree National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Spotted Catbird sighting in Daintree National Park on a given day, based on 239 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 76th most-seen of the 208 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and September
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Spotted Catbird in Daintree National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January and April, the lowest months. Those are among Daintree National Park's driest months, with about 75 mm of rain a month against 380 mm in January.
Between 2 and 5 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Spotted Catbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Daintree National Park, in our data
Daintree National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Spotted Catbird sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Spotted Catbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Daintree National Park (239 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
