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Spotted Bowerbird

(Chlamydera maculata)
Aboriginal name: "wiidhaa" [gamilaraay, yuwaalaraay]
Size: 25-31 cm

Habitat
(for details refer to a field guide)

Spotted Bowerbirds live in inland NSW and QLD, with a western boundary just to the east of the state borders between NSW/SA and QLD/NT. In the south their range is limited at about the geographic latitude of the Murry-Darling confluence, while in the north their range extends to just beyond Mt. Isa and Charters Towers, QLD. In the east they do not venture into the Great Dividing Range south of Goondiwindi, QLD.

Spotted Bowerbirds can be found in dry open forest and woodland. The males have a preference for Wilga trees as cover for their bowers.

Twitcher's tip

A bower is NOT a nest - it is a male bird's courting alley. Nests, built by female birds, are in fact kept well away from bowers. A Spotted Bowerbird's nest is shown below.

Sightings

Spotted Bowerbirds came to our place 20 km south of Narrabri, NSW, mostly through the winter season. During the heat of summer they were not seen there in the years 2004-2006.

A male Spotted Bowerbird is a permanent resident where we live at Eulah Creek, 20 km east of Narrabri, where the most recent photos were taken.

Photos

Not the photos you want? Or are you after even better quality? Have a look here.

Close-up frontal view of a Spotted Bowerbird

The same bird as shown above, in a slightly different posture

Lateral portrait

Close-up lateral view of a Spotted Bowerbird (photo courtesy of R. Druce)

Dorsal view of a Spotted Bowerbird - here one can see clearly the pink nuchal crest; when excited, the bird fans out the crest, which will then not be erected upwards, but fan out sideways, rendering a pink and purple fringe visible behind its eyes, as seen from the front

Spotted Bowerbird preening itself and in the process displaying prominently its pink nuchal crest

Close-up view of a young Spotted Bowerbird

For those who still think that the bird is in the bottlebrush tree for its seeds, rather than flowers, here is the proof of its feeding on nectar

Near-frontal view of an immature Spotted Bowerbird (slightly out of focus) ; while the adult bird made its usual racket the young one followed silently

Lateral view of an immature Spotted Bowerbird in a shady area

Lateral view of an female Spotted Bowerbird in diffuse sunlight; note how different the colours appear to be compared to the photos above

Only a few feathers of the nuchal crest are pink; the rest is dark-grey ; the last remainders of pink on its lores visible in the close-up view above indicate that this is a young bird

Spotted Bowerbird issuing its hissing call (photo courtesy of R. Druce)

Breeding information

Breeding season: Sep - Jan Eggs: 1 - 2 Incubation period: 21 - 22 days Fledging age: ca. 21 days

Nest construction, incubation and care for the chicks is entirely the task of the female. The male is too busy with his bower and his attempts to attract as many females as possible to assist... Females keep their nests well away (at least 50 m) from bowers.

Nest

Type: Basket Material: Twigs Height above ground: 2 - 15 m

Nest of a female Spotted Bowerbird in the early stages of construction; this nest was later abandoned

Eggs

Size: 38 x 28 mm Colour: Creamy, structured with brown streaks all over Shape: Tapered oval

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Territorial Mobility: Sedentary Elementary unit: Solitary

While some other birds splash themselves wet when bathing, Spotted Bowerbirds fully immerse themselves in water.

Frontal view of a bird just out of the bath

We have noticed that, while normally they always skip, male Spotted Bowerbirds - when trying to impress a female and thereby craning their neck while displaying their nuchal crest - can, and do, in fact walk. We have not seen any Spotted Bowerbird walking on alternating feet in any other circumstances yet.

Bowers

Male Spotted Bowerbirds try to attract as many females to their territory, and thus their bower, as they can. It appears that male Spotted Bowerbirds hone their building skills based on experience (see "additional information" link below).

Bower with trinkets

Spotted Bowerbird inspecting a trinket near the bower; it is clear from the precision and repeatability of the arrangements that the bird has a very accurate sense of symmetry and order

Here a male bird carrying a new piece of decoration (the seed of a black pine) to his bower

Additional information

Click here to visit a separate page describing the evolution of a Spotted Bowerbird's bowers over the course of years.

Food

Spotted Bowerbirds around our place have shown a taste for a varied diet - we have seen them stealing our mulberries, taking nectar from bottlebrush flowers, eating seeds of Kurrajong trees and cracking seeds of the White Cedar trees on the property. Below a view of another favourite type of food, the fruit of a Californian Peppertree.

Fruit of a Californian Peppertree; the red ones are ripe

Here a Spotted Bowerbird has snapped off part of a mulberry

Another surprise came when we observed two birds "trim" our parsley plant, which finally explained why it seemed to never grow in size... Later, this turned out not to be so surprising (see below).

What have we here, in this boring buffalo grass lawn?

Let's give it a try...

Indeed, fresh clover!

This one is feeding on the flower of a plant similar to dandelion