This is not a backyard bird in the United States, but rather in Eastern Australia along the Coast. I just happened to be listening to a program Saturday morning and I thought, “I have to learn more about this bird.”
The Satin Bowerbirds are medium in size. The male Bowerbird actually has a blue head and a bluish bill. The females and young female and male birds are a green color. Birds are not considered fully grown until they are 7. They eat different fruits year round and seeds in the summer and leaves to supplement their diet in the winter.
The interesting fact that caught my ears and eyes from the television was the Bowerbird’s method of courtship. The male Bowerbird is attracted to blue colored objects. So he collects bright blue objects and arranges them in his mating (bower) area.
These objects can be straws, blue rocks, paper, bottle tops, and parrot feathers. If the objects are bright blue, the Bowerbird will “borrow” them for his area and arrange his finds so a potential mate will notice those bright blue colors. If the bird leaves and his objects are moved, he will put them exactly the way he had them before.
When a female does show up, the male Bowerbird will dance and strut usually with one of the objects in his bill in order to begin the courtship. He will stretch out his wings and make calls. If he drops his object, he will pick it back up and begin the whole process again, and then may place the object by the female bird. So interesting! One video camera even caught a male bird giving a female bird a ring.
If the female is impressed, she will move closer and of course accept the gift and then move into the actual mating area and mate. Then the female will attend to her nesting duties. After the female leaves, the male sets back up and tries to attract yet another female! He’s quite the deal! And yet again, maybe not. The female may leave without a glance, and not mate at all.
The calls the Bowerbirds make are hisses, whistles, buzzing, weeoo sounds, and mimicry. A mimicry is when one bird imitates another’s sounds. So when the female makes a noise, then so does the male and vice-versa. Again, they mimicry to impress each other during the courtship.
There are 17 kinds of Bowerbirds in Australia and on the nearby island of New Guinea. Some other names they are called are Gardeners, Catbirds, or the nickname, stage makers. Each bird builds its own shape of bower and prefers a different decorating plan. Some birds for instance, surround their bowers with carefully planted areas of moss. Others have been known to steal shiny objects such as spoons, coins, bits of aluminum foil, and jewelry. The male is trying to create a perfect place to attract a female. Some males will even chew up berries and spit them out along the walls of their area to make it more attractive. It’s like they are trying to actually paint the walls.
I’ve always wanted to visit Australia to see animals such as the kangaroo in the wild, but now I have another quest. I want to visit one of the Satin Bowerbird’s mating areas and view these interesting birds. And, I might just have to drop a couple of blue trinkets in the area when I leave.
