[Birding-Aus] Great Bowerbird

[Roger Giller]

Hello All,

The recent discussions concerning the colour preferences of Bowerbirds prompted me to take a closer look at a couple of images I took last year. This was a Great Bowerbird in the camping ground at Katherine Gorge.

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/Roger.Giller/Bowerbird?authkey=4Vn75JPnxeM

Most of the decoration is white or light grey pebbles. There are also several "ring-pull" tabs, most of which appear to be on the periphery of the pebble field apart from two inside the bower. Notably there is a green object (the only one) right at the entrance to the bower. I can't help thinking that this placement is more than accidental, as is the placement of the ring-pull tabs. By contrast any Satin Bowerbird decoration I have seen appears to be entirely random. Is this careful placement of the decorative elements by Great Bowerbirds documented?

Roger Giller
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

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[Alan Gillanders]

Roger,
I do not think the placement of the objects by any species of bowerbird is
random. It is just that some have an aesthetic more akin to ours than
others. Individual birds have preferences and styles as well.
Regards,
Alan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Giller" <rgi...@optusnet.com.au>
To: "Birding-Aus" <birdi...@vicnet.net.au>
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:47 PM
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Great Bowerbird

Hello All,

The recent discussions concerning the colour preferences of Bowerbirds
prompted me to take a closer look at a couple of images I took last year.
This was a Great Bowerbird in the camping ground at Katherine Gorge.

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/Roger.Giller/Bowerbird?authkey=4Vn75JPnxeM

Most of the decoration is white or light grey pebbles. There are also
several "ring-pull" tabs, most of which appear to be on the periphery of the
pebble field apart from two inside the bower. Notably there is a green
object (the only one) right at the entrance to the bower. I can't help
thinking that this placement is more than accidental, as is the placement of
the ring-pull tabs. By contrast any Satin Bowerbird decoration I have seen
appears to be entirely random. Is this careful placement of the decorative
elements by Great Bowerbirds documented?

Roger Giller
==========www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: birding-a...@vicnet.net.au

==========

===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

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send the message:
unsubscribe
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===============================

[Tom and Mandy Wilson]

Per Alan Gillander's point about bird preferences for placing objects in its
bower coinciding (or not) with our own aesthetics, didn't David Attenborough
do a piece on a Satin Bowerbird - and whenever he moved one of the blue
objects, the bird put it back exactly from where it had been removed?
Cheers
Tom Wilson