bower bird

John Gryphon

Well-Known Member
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Lovely shots. They are both of an immature male Satin bowerbird. He's probably around 4-6 years old. They can live to >20 years - amazing for a bird not much bigger than a jackdaw. When he is about 7yrs old, he'll moult into a vivid irridesecent blue plumage and build and decorate his own bower. At the moment he is either 'practicing' at the bower of an older male, or more likely building a bower with a group of other immature males. Where did you take the pic? I spent 13 yrs studying Spotted bowerbirds up in central Qld. Fantastic birds.
 
Pic taken in my garden.He`s shy too not an easy job getting a reasonable pic. I`m pretty well versed in the SBB`s having had them in another place. This cock bird is showing signs of a plumage change in other pics,I feed him pieces of an ice cream container. Triangles,squares,strips..it doesnt matter what shape. A light blue peg he has spurned though.

Blue agapanthus flowers are used also by him.

He also uses a 'paste' of some sort to daub on his bower presumably.
 
Try moving it to a 'wrong' place then watch him on his return:evil:. They look baffled, upset and angry and then huffily move it back to the original place. Almost as if they've an aesthetic sense.

Regarding the painting - it's still debated whether they actually use a 'brush' of chewed up plant material, or whether it is dribbled on by the beak. It's clearly important because swapping the paint form one bower to another causes males to overpaint the intruder, and removal of paint reduces the numbers of females visiting a bower.
 
I have moved stuff,not right at his bower but from my original drop to a rock he likes to land on..he takes them then.
I cut one small bit of foliage from the area in front of his bower so as to expose it to the camera a little more,just one piece every few days.

Simple re the painting ! I will capture him doing it..it may take me a million pics and countless hours but I will get him doing it definitively (yeah right!)

He loves the yellow leaves as pictured also.

About 15 years ago on a deer hunt a mate brought back to camp a blue peg that he had found about 3 K`s away high up on a ridge. The nearest clothesline was perhaps five K`s away so there had been a fair amount of territorial stealing for that to get where found.

I am going to cut up some suitable yellow plastic to test him out. I believe from my own evidence that he only uses one particular shape from one yellow plant often stacking 3-4 in his beak. He flies off and brings them from elsewhere (?)
If he doesn't take yellow strips I will cut shapes acc with the yellow leaves for a simple test.
I want to catch him doing his dancing with feather fanning,it looks awesome with his iridescent bronze points of plumage in the light..flashes like a fishing lure in the sun.

We have Lyrebirds too,alas not in the home garden.

Another bird we have is this KP hen with the crook beak. I finally caught her yesterday and cut off her beak to a point roughly level with her lower beak underside. Yes its still too long but I will recapture her to trip off to the vet who will shape and trim to the correct point.
The poor ******* is in moult and hasn't been able to preen as nature dictates so this will help her till the next big day out.

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One of her tribe of the many that come in for a freebie.

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Keep the photos coming - it's fascinating to see and hear about bird life the other side of the world :thumb:

Let us know how the hen gets on as well with the trip to the vet - over here doubtless you'd be locked away for animal cruelty but :tiphat: for what you're doing to help her.
 
Keep the photos coming - it's fascinating to see and hear about bird life the other side of the world :thumb:

Let us know how the hen gets on as well with the trip to the vet - over here doubtless you'd be locked away for animal cruelty but :tiphat: for what you're doing to help her.

****! NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT ONE WG...cruelty ffs!

I suppose the 'others' would want her to die a painful death "naturally" rather than some Bronzed Anzac CHOPPING her beak off,which btw was quite a bit longer than what is shown in the pic above.
It must have been touching her skin.

She is a little wary now Willie and may take a bit of catching again but we have noticed already that she is feeding more successfully and faster.

I will keep taking progress pics of her.
 
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