January 23, 2008

Decorator Birds

We were watching David Attenborough's special on Birds of Paradise the other night, and were blown away by the segment on Bowerbirds. (Watch the video! It's amazing!) The male Bower Birds, who are native to New Guinea and Australia, create amazing habitats out of sticks and twigs ("bowers"), which they decorate with colorful findings from the forest in order to attract a mate. Acorns, berries, leaves, beetle shells... all perfectly arranged by color as any sophisticated decorator would do. Pretty impressive stuff.

4 comments:

baffle said...

WOW - Spectacular!
Bowerbirds are like the Andy Goldsworthy(s) of the bird world!

Thank you much for sharing this fascinating phenomenon of the natural world.

Conn said...

I AM SPEECHLESS!
thanks for sharing... and i got stuck on youtube for way too long. enjoyable.

studio wellspring said...

how impressive indeed. i just love these kinds of discoveries. thanks so much for sharing it.

House Dreams said...

Don't we wish we each had our very own bower bird to woo us?

I might fall for the guy collecting blue thingies.

But my T. claims he is my own bower bird and it may be true.

He painted the living room red!