Satin Bowerbird

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• The bower is not a nest: it is only a courtship stage. The female afterwards builds her own nest in a tree, incubates and raises the young alone, and the male takes no part at all.
• The male arranges the decorative objects in a size gradient to produce an optical illusion of forced perspective from the exact spot where the female stands, and the males who achieve the most convincing illusion get more matings.
• The male uses a tool: he applies the paint to the walls with a piece of bark held in his bill, one of the few documented cases of tool use in passerine birds.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat and environment

Temperate rainforest, wet sclerophyll forest and gardens of eastern Australia

Birth weight

Altricial: born blind, naked or with sparse down and entirely dependent

Size at birth

Altricial: born blind, naked or with sparse down and entirely dependent

Sexual maturity

4.7 years

Gestation / incubation

21 days of incubation

Litter / clutch size

2 eggs

Sources consulted: IUCN Red List · Animal Diversity Web · Wikipedia (es)

Best time: From September to December in eastern Australia, when the males build their avenues and decorate them with blue objects to court.

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.