An adult male Satin bowerbird outside of his bower, with blue decorations
With the male’s beautiful dark blue sheen, violet eyes, bizarre calls and bower
building habits, the Satin bowerbird is one of our most intriguing birds.
Preferring rainforest and wet eucalypt forests, they have adapted reasonably
well to some urban environments and can be found in parks and gardens
throughout Toowoomba, and the eastern side of whole Toowoomba Regional
Council area. Their range extends from SE Queensland all the way along the
Great Dividing Range to southern Victoria. There is another population on Cape
York though, centred around Cairns, which is a different sub-species.
Satin bowerbirds are well known for building bowers out of grass and sticks ,
they are essentially an avenue of grass and sticks, which are decorated at the
front and rear apron with blue objects. Interestingly the northern sub-species
rarely does this with blue objects, but prefers to use green moss instead. The
bower is used to attract females, but is not where the eggs are laid. The female
will build a bowl shaped nest between one and thirty metres above the ground
in a nearby tree, and lay two to three eggs there.
Satin bowerbirds exhibit strong sexual dichromatism – that means the two
sexes are very differently coloured. The females are predominantly green and
brown with a scalloped pattern all down their front, which is in stark contrast
to the dark blue of the males. The females reach their full colouration in their
second year, whereas it takes the males seven years to reach theirs. Whilst
they are in their immature colouration the males strongly resemble the
females.
The calls Satin bowerbirds make are fascinating – I’m sure it’s where George
Lucas got the idea for R2-D2 from! To hear this and find other information on
our amazing birds visit www.birdbites.com.au
This article first appeared in the High Country Herald on the 6th of August 2024