Male birds use different strategies to attract females- such as visual signals, courtship dance, melodic harmonies etc. Some birds use their creativity to attract their mate. In Australia and PapuwaNewguini there is such a bird group. They are named after the structures they build ??? Bower. Bower birds have a very unique courtship ritual among the birds. They are architects and artists and these craftsmen build their bowers in a romantic way to win their lover’s heart. Each species is different with what they build, among them there are “platform”, “maypole” and “avenue” builders.
The Vogelkop bowerbird makes a large bower even a man can enter and it decorates lavishly the interior and the entrance with carefully selected matching bright colures flowers and fruits. The Satin bowerbird collects dark blue objects such as flowers, feathers, bottle caps, etc which match its colour to adorn its bower. The Great bowerbird built a twin-wall tunnel bower and it is very clever with the arrangement of paraphernalia which is mostly white in colour in and around the bower. He creates an optical illusion to get more attraction to him eventually.
Toothed Billed Bower bird (Scenopoeetesdentirostris) on the other hand is not the most architectural bower bird in the Bowerbird family. Unlike other bowerbirds the male doesn’t spend much energy to construct a beautiful bower, instead, it clears a small area of rainforest floor and arranges some leaves on there, with no lavish decoration with colorful objectives.
Toothed-Billed Bowerbirds are endemic to Australia and only found in the highlands of North Queensland, places like in Cairns.
My first ever counter of it was when I was in Lake Eacham national park in the Artherton Tableland in early 2008 and I was not able to spot him properly and only saw the bower. In 2012 (05/11//2012) I went there again hoping to see him properly. After 500m walk on the main walking track around the lake I heard a male calling very close to me. I know during the breeding season males sing next to their bower. Hence, I knew that if I could spot the bower I had a good chance of seeing the owner. So, I carefully checked the rainforest floor and I found a bower! It was 10m away from the walking track in to the forest.
For maybe about 5 minutes the bird was silent and eventually made a very strange call. My eyes unwittingly follow the directions where the sound came from and I spotted the bird! and it was sitting on a small twig close to its bower. The bower is very strange if you don’t know or haven’t seen a picture of it before you miss it easily. It’s a small cleared area surrounding a tree on the forest floor. The male uses only some green leaves, no colourful fruits, seeds, or petals like in other bowers. The only beautification he does with leaves is, he just arranges them with paler underside uppermost and he is very serious with that. What a lazy bird to attract his female mate!!!!
As you may have seen in David Attenborough’s Life of Birds series, Sir David at a bower of Toothed-billed, turned one leaf other way up to see the response of the owner, and the bird came and turned it underside uppermost again. I did the same!! But he didn’t turn them back up for me!!!
The male uses a wide variety of calls to attract females. He can sing two voices at once due to an adaptation of its syrinx. Maybe that is why he doesn’t need an attractive bower like others in his family.
I tried to take a good photograph of him. But it was quite frustrating as he was hiding among the vines and other trees. I later found another two more bowers and they were not very far away from each other. Thievery is common among them, when a bower is being unattended, neighboring males come and rob the precious leaves from the display ground.??
If you want to see a Toothed Billed Bowerbird, the Lake Eacham national park is a very reliable place. I will go there again to take a good picture of him!!!
