Perhaps not the most practical of ambitions, for a normally very practical people.
It began with a photograph in a dusty birdwatching magazine, a blur of green feathers and a note scribbled beneath it: “Spotted once in the Daintree. Heard often, seen rarely.” And that was all it took, that was enough to light the fire of longing within them.
So, they set out from Adelaide, chasing the whisper and promise of something remarkable, into the wild heart of Eastern Australia. The journey twisted through desert where heat shimmered off the road in liquid waves, over rain-soaked hills, and into rain forests so dense they swallowed daylight.
Every time they thought they were close, the Catbird remained elusive, a phantom in the dark, a rustle in the treetops, a shadow that never quite formed. Doubt crept in like coastal fog, thick and suffocating. Maybe this was nothing more than a crazy dream.
But then, on a grey, damp morning in Wollongong, as sunlight broke through the clouds, a blur of green movement seen out of the corner of the eye grabbed their attention. Almost invisible in the dense foliage, the Green Catbird blinked at them with jewel-bright eyes and held their gaze for a heartbeat, before flitting off into the thick, green darkness. Gone in seconds, but the excitement and magic of the moment remained.
A single photograph was all they had to prove that it wasn’t a dream, but the real prize was the journey, the distance travelled, the slow unfolding of landscapes, the anticipation, the glimpses of a world that only the truly foolish or the deeply hopeful ever get to see.
It was a just a crazy dream, a quest if you like, a five-thousand-kilometer road trip to find the Green Catbird….
The Green Catbird (Ailuroedus crassirostris) is a secretive jewel of the eastern Australian rainforest, cloaked in shimmering shades of emerald and olive.
Named for its eerie, cat-like wails that echo through the undergrowth, this elusive songbird blurs the line between the wild and the whimsical. Its plumage, a lustrous tapestry of green with subtle speckling, allows it to vanish like a leaf into the dense foliage. Yet, its presence is unmistakable — not just for its haunting calls, but for its curious nature and bursts of mimicry, imitating the sounds of other birds and forest life.
In the soft light beneath the canopy, the green catbird moves with quiet purpose, often foraging in pairs or alone, plucking fruit and insects with gentle precision. Unlike its bowerbird relatives, it does not build elaborate courtship displays, but instead courts with song, food offerings, and devotion.
A creature of mystery and melody, the green catbird is a living note in the rainforest’s symphony — elusive, enchanting, and endlessly fascinating.