Brilliant Bowerbirds

There are some bird families that have a certain mystique and appeal within the birding community. One such family is the Bowerbirds - occurring in Australia and New Guinea. There are twenty species known to science, ten of which occur in Australia; eight of these ten (Green Catbird; Tooth-billed, Golden, Satin, Regent, Western, Spotted and Great) only occur in Australia and the remaining two (Spotted Catbird and Fawn-breasted Bowerbird) are found in both Australia and New Guinea. Five of these are found in Far North Queensland - Spotted Catbird, Satin Bowerbird, Great Bowerbird, and the Tooth-billed and Golden Bowerbird which are endemic to our region.
The bowers the males make as part of their courtship rituals fall in to two main types.
Some build so called "maypole" design structures - a structure of sticks built around a central sapling or tree

the structure is decorated and maintained throughout the season, here is the same bower three weeks later

The male, in this case was a Golden Bowerbird

who uses a song post nearby to advertise his presence with a collection of buzzes and croaks
You can listen to him here:
http://youtu.be/elrAxtu2YKA

Other species of bowerbird construct tunnel structures

this structure has been decorated with green plastic and was made by a Great Bowerbird

There are of course some species that buck this trend of fancy structures. A case in point being this member of the family, the Tooth-billed Bowerbird

their structures consist of nothing more than up turned leaves in a clear area of the forest floor

On a recent trip we saw four of the five species that can be found in North Queensland - only missing Great Bowerbird that occurs in dry country rather than in the forests.
Come and join us and see these astonishing birds.....