Bower Birds


Sitting at the computer, wondering what to write, I looked out on the garden and saw our three bower birds hopping around among the bushes. Bower birds are fascinating, and we consider ourselves extremely honoured to have three Satin Bower Birds - a male and two females. The birds are reasonably large - the male is a beautiful blue-black colour, while the females vary in colour from green to brown (ours are both more green than brown). The male builds a bower that he then decorates with anything and everything that is blue: feathers, stones, flowers, plastic drink tops, plastic straws, small toys, ALL the blue pegs from my peg basket... He then sings and dances in his bower in the hope of attracting some ladies. Our bower bird (who has been with us in the garden for about three years) has been most successful this year, having found himself two very pleasant lady friends. They eat mainly fruit, are very good mimics and seem to get along with the other birds in the garden. Having been around us so long, the male is reasonably tame, and he probably wonders what we are doing in his backyard... 

 Photo from thebentangle.wordpress.com