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...