ianmichaelthomas
Female Satin Bowerbird - Miss Blue Eyes!
I was literally surprised to see this beautiful female Satin Bowerbird sitting on an a elevated viewing platform railing, just watching the world go by!
She allowed me to get very close to her, without her even twitching (pun intended!) - she then flew down to the ground level below, plucked an unlucky worm, then ate it and went on watching.
The male satin bowerbird is a rich and sumptuous deep satin colour, hence the name.
The Satin Bowerbird, Ptilonorhynchus violaceus is a bowerbird common in rainforest and tall wet sclerophyll forest in eastern Australia from southern Queensland to Victoria. There is also an isolated population in the Wet Tropics of north Queensland.
Males are uniformly coloured in a deep shiny blue.
Like all bowerbirds, the Satin Bowerbird shows highly complex courtship behaviour.
Males build specialized stick structures, called bowers, which they decorate with blue shiny objects if these are available, including berries, flowers, bottle tops, and even ballpoint pens, drinking straws and other discarded plastic items. As the males mature they use more blue objects than other colours. Females visit these and choose which male they will allow to mate with them. In addition to building their bowers, males carry out intense behavioural displays called dances to woo their mates,
Nest building and incubation are carried out by the females alone.
Great Flight Aviary, Royal Melbourne Zoo, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
Female Satin Bowerbird - Miss Blue Eyes!
I was literally surprised to see this beautiful female Satin Bowerbird sitting on an a elevated viewing platform railing, just watching the world go by!
She allowed me to get very close to her, without her even twitching (pun intended!) - she then flew down to the ground level below, plucked an unlucky worm, then ate it and went on watching.
The male satin bowerbird is a rich and sumptuous deep satin colour, hence the name.
The Satin Bowerbird, Ptilonorhynchus violaceus is a bowerbird common in rainforest and tall wet sclerophyll forest in eastern Australia from southern Queensland to Victoria. There is also an isolated population in the Wet Tropics of north Queensland.
Males are uniformly coloured in a deep shiny blue.
Like all bowerbirds, the Satin Bowerbird shows highly complex courtship behaviour.
Males build specialized stick structures, called bowers, which they decorate with blue shiny objects if these are available, including berries, flowers, bottle tops, and even ballpoint pens, drinking straws and other discarded plastic items. As the males mature they use more blue objects than other colours. Females visit these and choose which male they will allow to mate with them. In addition to building their bowers, males carry out intense behavioural displays called dances to woo their mates,
Nest building and incubation are carried out by the females alone.
Great Flight Aviary, Royal Melbourne Zoo, Parkville, Victoria, Australia