General Information

The most notable characteristic of bowerbirds is the extraordinarily complex male behavior. They build bowers to attract their mates. Depending on the species, the bower has different characteristics. Normally, the bower begins with a circle of cleared earth and has a small pile of twigs in the center. The sticks are decorated with leaves, berries, flowers, and any other noticeable miscellaneous objects they can find.

Physical Description

The Regent Bowerbird is a sexually dimorphic, medium-sized bowerbird and can grow to be 25cm long. The male bird is black with a golden orange-yellow crown, mantle and black-tipped wing feathers. It has yellow bill, black feet and yellow iris. The female is a brown bird with whitish or fawn markings, grey bill, black feet and crown. The Satin bowerbird is black from head to toe. Its plumage has a beautiful satin shine, and in the light, shows a glimmer of blue. The male has a blue iris and both sexes are medium sized as well.

Diet

The bowerbird's diet consists mainly of fruits, berries and insects.

Habitat

An Australian endemic, the Regent Bowerbird is distributed to rainforests and margins or eastern Australia, from central Queensland to New South Wales. The Satin Bowerbird is common in rainforests and tall wet sclerophyll forests in eastern Australia from southern Queensland to Victoria. There is also an isolated population in the wet tropics of north Queensland.

Reproduction

Females visit the bowers and choose which male they will allow to mate with them. In addition to building their bowers, males will carry out intense behavioral dance displays to woo their mates. The females carry out the nest building alone.