I thought I’d share an interesting species today.

I was watching some bird videos from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and found one of the Vogelkop bowerbird (Amblyornis inornata). It primarily lives in Western New Guinea, Indonesia, which made me wonder if it was part of the “Lost World” findings that went on in that area. Sadly, it looks like the only bowerbird included in that was the golden-fronted bowerbird (Amblyornis flavifrons). Bowerbirds in general live in Australia and New Guinea, with twenty species, both individual and shared, between the both of them. Things like size and egg number range depending on the species, but fancy courtship efforts seem to be the common theme among all. I am not going to go into much detail about it, but there are different types of bowers they build, vocal mimics they do, special ways of arranging their chosen items, sabotaging other males’ bowers, and more. I read that some species even arrange the items to create optical illusions and forced perceptions. 

The Vogelkop bowerbird, though, builds hut-like bowers and uses colourful flowers and objects to attract their potential mates. I am unsure if this species does, but other bowerbirds make even wilder displays, some with bright blue plastic pieces like bottle caps covering the entire surrounding area. Anyways, below is a video of one Vogelkop bowerbird in action, carefully decorating its… err love shack? I say that because it turns out that isn’t even their nest. The females of most species build their own nests and raise the baby/babies on their own. So, yeah, the bower really only serves one major purpose… (Also, can I just say that I am just in awe of that design and am so curious as to how the birds can create such complex structures?!?)

There are more videos out there on this, but I appreciated the serenity and focus of this one.

Happy reading,
-Beppa

*This is a republished post due to a domain change.*