Bowerbirds

by Peter Rowland

"The bowerbirds (family Ptilonorhynchidae) are famed for their unique bower-building behaviour which, in some species, can be a complex construction of sticks and other vegetable matter that can grow to two metres or so in diameter and about one and a half metres high. Many species are also accomplished mimics, and are able to copy the calls of other bird species, other natural and mechanical sounds and even human speech. The bowerbirds are confined to Australia and New Guinea and, due to the difficulty in accessing certain areas of their distribution, the study of their habits has been challenging. The 20 species are also almost equally divided between the two regions with eight species endemic to Australia, 10 to New Guinea and two species occurring in both regions"--Publisher.