Birds · Passeriformes · Ptilonorhynchidae

Regent Bowerbird

Sericulus chrysocephalus

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The regent bowerbird is a bird of the Australian garden, velvety black with an intensely golden-yellow crown and wings. Like the other bowerbirds, the male builds an avenue of two walls of twigs on the forest floor and decorates it, in his case with snail shells, berries and leaves. He also paints the walls with a paste of saliva and plant material applied with a tool.

Weight

75 g – 115 g

Size

24 cm – 25 cm

Lifespan

18 years

Diet

Herbivore

Feeds mainly on plants.

Activity

Diurnal

Active mainly during the day.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

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Fun facts

It uses tools to paint: it chews plant material, mixes it with saliva and applies the paste to the walls of the bower with a piece of bark or a leaf held in its bill.
Its bowers are smaller and plainer than those of the satin bowerbird, and the leading hypothesis is an evolutionary trade-off: males with more spectacular plumage build simpler bowers, and the other way round.
The male takes five years to acquire the adult black and gold plumage, and until then he looks like a female: during that time he practises building rough bowers.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)
Habitat & environment: Subtropical rainforest and humid forest of eastern Australia
Sexual maturity: 4 years
Gestation / incubation: 21 days of incubation
Litter / clutch size: 2 eggs

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sericulus_chrysocephalus