Today we have one of Australia’s most famous birds, the Satin Bowerbird. Although most birds are great architects, and we can see all sorts of amazing nest designs across the avian kingdom, Bowerbirds are unique as they are one of the few birds who build something that isn’t a nest.
What is a nest? A nest is a place where birds lay and incubate their eggs, and then raise their young. A bower serves no such function, it is built by the male and its only purpose is to impress the females during courtship display.
Satin Bowerbirds build an ‘avenue’ bower. It consist of two rows of sticks forming a little enclosed walkway, or avenue if you will. When the female comes to inspect the male’s work, she will walk into the bower, which then serves as her vantage point to watch the rest of the male’s display.
Most striking of all though are the blue things the male collects to decorate the bower. They scour the land in search of anything blue and pretty that they can bring back to litter around their bower. No-one is really sure where this obsession with blue things came from, but the leading theory is that the colour may accentuate male’s satin plumage.
Now, Bowerbird can be petty and tricksy. Males need to be on constant guard to protect their bowers from rivals. Some males will cruise the forest, looking for other bowers. If they find one unattended they’ll go in and steal the blue things and generally run amok, messing the placing up. The aim is to make a rival’s bower look more shabby, so that theirs will pop by comparison. Juvenile males have even been recorded impersonating female birds as a ruse to get in close to the bower and steal things while its owner is preoccupied perform a courtship dance. Oh yes, Bowerbirds are deceitful little birds.
But did you know there are nearly 30 species of bowerbird, and they all build different bowers and collect different things. There’s a whole other world of bowerbirds out there, and wouldn’t you know it, that’s the subject of our latest podcast episode, so if you want to learn more about these dancing, collecting, bower-building birds, then check it out (Apple/Spotify).
15/01/2023
Photo credit:
1: “Satin Bowerbird, Lamington National Park, Queensland DSC kli” by chujoslaw
2: “Ptilonorhynchus violaceus, Satin Bowerbird” by Photographer: Alan Henderson
3: “Ptilonorhynchus violaceus, Satin Bowerbird” by Photographer: Alan Henderson
4: “Satin Bowerbird” by Will_89
Bird of the Week 