Bowerbirds

Bowerbirds

Bowerbirds are a unique family of birds from Australia and New Guinea.  The family of birds has 8 species in Australia and 10 species in New Guinea and 2 species live in both places.  The most striking characteristic is their courtship rituals.  The male Bowerbird makes a fancy bower to attaract a mate.  We were watching a show about urban wildlife and it showed a male Bowerbird building a bower to attract a mate.  Because he lived in an urban area. . . that means in a city. . . the male collected various colorful things.  This included a toy car and other manmade colorful things.  He decorated the front of his bower to attract a mate.  In the show...what he thought was a female showed up but it turned out to be an immature male.  And the interloper stole one of his bright objects.  

Notice the crest for display on the head of the mature adult male Bowerbird.  When a female shows up he picks up colorful things from the display and struts around to win over the female.  Here he has not yet picked up an item, but he IS displaying his colorful crest.  Different species of Bowerbirds have different colors of feathers and different kinds of crests.

NOTE:  This is another one of the Australian animals drawings I am doing in anticipation of our trip to Australia this summer.   Remember that printable versions of my drawings are found by clicking on the correct button up top.  Click on All Printables or on Animals and scroll down.  New drawings are at the bottom of the lists.  The photos before are from the TV show I mentioned.  I'd give it credit and name the show, but I don't remember the name of the documentary.  

Male Australian Bowerbird displaying Crest

Young male Bowerbird acting like a female