Greetings.
Has anyone on birding-aus got the time, opportunity and interest to check on
a probable Green Catbird behaviour that has not been reported in the
literature? This is the background:
Peter Ogilvie, (presently Manager, World Heritage, in the Queensland
Environmental Protection Agency), was appointed National Parks Zoologist in
1964. A few years later he took on the task of caring for an injured Green
Catbird. At my request, Peter has written about it:
The catbird had been given to me as an injured animal (badly damaged wing).
I think it had collided with a car. I took it to Salisbury where it lived
(at night) in a cage and (by day) in the laboratory with me. I kept notes
on its behaviour, particularly in relation to its propensity to collect
certain items and hoard them in the corner of the room (not sure where the
notes are now). It also had an extraordinary affinity with water. I
couldn¹t keep it out of the aquarium in the lab and finally had to construct
a lid with weights to prevent it getting in.
I am quite sure that, while not being bower builders, catbirds will be
found to be collectors. However, the hoarding sites may well be in the
forks of major limbs somewhere up in the canopy, rather than on the ground.
Catbirds are closely related to the bowerbirds. (The Toothbill Bowerbird
was originally known as a catbird in the vernacular.) Could it be that the
Green Catbird's collecting behaviour is the last vestige of ancestral
'bower' behaviour?
Without considering the New Guinea species, we have in Queensland a range of
bowers: the huge structures of the Golden Bowerbird, the more modest but
impressive avenue of the Satin, the much less impressive efforts of the
Regent, and the Toothbill's 'court' with no structure, merely a cleared
space decorated with leaves turned upside-down to display the pale
underside. One more step might be simply collecting items and hoarding them
in a particular location that involves no preparation and is thus far from
obvious.
What is needed, I suggest, is someone to spend most of the daylight hours
over a period of days, observing the behaviour of one individual - or pair.
But perhaps not at this time of the year - we're coming into the lyrebird
season now, but the quiet time for bowerbirds. Next Spring maybe?
Any takers? Entry to the ornithological hall of fame assured for properly
documented observations confirming this behaviour that Peter is confident
exists.
Cheers
Syd
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