Satin Bowerbird

Female silk Bowerbird ( Ptilonorhynchus violaceus )

The silk Bowerbird ( Ptilonorhynchus violaceus ) is a living in the eastern and south-eastern Australia songbird and is also called Satin Bowerbird.

Features

The silk Bowerbird is 28 to 32 cm long. The plumage of the male is blue-black, the female of the blue-gray to olive green.

Occurrence

The silk leaves bird lives in rain and eucalyptus forests along Australia's east coast. But he is also found in parks and gardens.

Food

The bird is omnivorous and feeds on berries, fruits, nectar and insects.

Courtship display

The male cleans a part of the forest floor and built a mating grounds, a kind of arbor of branches whose arcs are about 35 cm high and 45 cm long and are always built in a north-south direction. This gazebo is the male with blue, blue green and yellow objects such as flowers, feathers, insects, berries, snail shells, broken glass or waste products of civilization, such as pens and plastic toys, is designed.

In the finished arbor males singing loudly to attract females. The female judges the male after his " architectural capabilities " and his courtship behavior, the Gefiederaufplustern, spreading the wings and running around with loud cries covers. A specific and aggressive behavior is obviously important for mating success. Females that breed for the first or second time, select the partner according to the arbor, older females after the mating dance of.

In order to attract the females in his construction of small twigs, crushed the male blue berries - a preferred color of this species - and distributed the flesh with its beak or with a sprig in its construction.

Breeding business

The breeding season lasts from October to January. In forest trees, 4-10 m in height, a nest is built of twigs. The female lays 1-3 cream to buff, dark patterned eggs. The male involved, neither the breeding nor in the rearing of young birds.