On a chilly winter’s morning, we’re strolling with a friend through her glorious garden in the heart of the Blue Mountains.
Approaching a majestic cypress tree, we spy, beneath a bush at its foot, a scattering of bright blue plastic objects, a few blue feathers and a u-shaped structure made from thin bits of stick, straw and dry grass. The hues of blue are a dead giveaway.
‘Not sure where he is, probably quite close by and watching us,’ Margaret says of the resident Satin Bowerbird.
‘Even though he’s lived here for 20 years that we know of, he’s still nervous. He flies off fast if we try to approach him.’
His bower is very fine work, neat and tidy.
Margaret says outside breeding season, he only visits his bower occasionally, sometimes rearranging the pieces of blue decor, which lie within a metre or so of it.
‘He pays a lot more attention to it in spring when he’s getting ready to mate,’ says Margaret. ‘He really fusses around and starts bringing in yellow objects to help lure the females. At least ten – sometimes up to 20 – females appear in the garden to check out his work. They’re quite particular and inspect him and his bower closely.’
Satin Bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) abound here in the Northern Rivers too, along with two other species: Regent Bowerbirds (Sericulus chrysocephalus) and the Green Catbird (Ailuroedus crassirostris), the latter being the only one not to build a bower.
All three are forest dwellers belonging to the Ptilonorhynchidae family. According to current classifications, there are about 20 bowerbird species. Found only in the Austro-Papuan region, some are endemic to Australia, others to New Guinea and two occur in both areas.
The Northern Rivers bowerbirds generally stay close to home and live a largely solitary life, outside breeding season. Being frugivores, fruit is their favoured food, occasionally supplemented by insects. The two bower builders are sexually dimorphic – meaning there is a distinct contrast in look between males and females – and polygynous, meaning males mate with many females and don’t take on parental duties.
Yowling cat call
The Green Catbirds dare to differ, mating for life in monogamous relationships, with pairs staying together year-round. While the males don’t build bowers, they do clear a court area, and use brightly coloured fruit or flowers, held in the beak, with which to lure females.
Green Catbirds are recognisable from their striking plumage of white spots on a vivid green background.
And the call of the catbird once heard is never forgotten – somewhere between a yowling cat and a mewling baby.
The scientific world has been looking at these birds as back as 1839, when famed ornithologist, John Gould, first encountered a Satin Bowerbird and bower in the wild, naming both.
His observations included two important facts: that only males build bowers and that they were used specifically for courtship displays. But why on earth do they go to so much trouble?
Charles Darwin’s visit down under
In January 1836, during his famous Voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin went out of his way to observe Satin Bowerbirds in the Blue Mountains.
He proposed that the female birds were selecting a mate based on the quality of the bower, an idea that supported the ‘female choice’ aspect of his theory of evolution.
Much has been learned since then, such as two main architectural styles of bower.
Performance space
In both, the male performs on the court to attract potential mates, some using an impressive array of sounds and mimicry to announce the location of the bower and ward off competitors and prey, as well as to woo females. Some male bowerbirds, including our Satin, also throw in a few dance moves.
More recently it has been suggested that the bower helps the male control the visiting females’ view of him and his display, which includes quick changes of selected decorations held in his beak as he appears, disappears and reappears either in the narrow ‘avenue’ window or by counteracting her movements around the maypole.
Mating takes place either in the bower or – in the case of the maypole – on the court before the female flies off to build the nest where her solo parenting will take place.
The types of objects and colours selected for court decoration vary according to bowerbird species and their location.
As hopes of seeing the resident Satin Bowerbird recede, Margaret suggests heading inside for some warmth and a hot cup of tea. Sitting at the kitchen table, gazing into the garden, who should reward us with a view of his lustrous dark purple sheen, bright, lilac-coloured eyes and strikingly yellow feet but the king of the garden himself, swooping down onto the grass to peck around in the soil.
‘You know the males start off with green feathers, just like the females,’ says Margaret. ‘It takes about seven years to develop this beautiful “satin” look.’
She turns back to the window.
‘He’s always well-groomed and takes great care of himself. A bit cheeky sometimes, but not brazen. Isn’t he gorgeous?’
We can’t help but agree.
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