23 |
Spotted Bowerbird |
Sightings
Spotted Bowerbirds came to our place 20 km south of Narrabri, New South Wales, mostly through the winter season. During the heat of summer they are not seen there in the years 2004-2006.
A pair of Spotted Bowerbirds are residents at Eulah Creek, 20 km east of Narrabri, where the most recent photos were taken.
Photos
Spotted Bowerbird preening itself and in the process displaying prominently its pink nuchal crest
View of the back 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 fringe visible behind its eyes, as seen from the front (click on image for larger version)
Close-up view of a young Spotted Bowerbird (click on image for larger version)
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 (click on image for larger version)
Frontal view of a bird just out of the bath (click on image for larger version)
Frontal view of an immature Spotted Bowerbird (slightly out of focus; click on image for larger version); while the adult bird made its usual racket the young one followed silently
Lateral view of an immature Spotted Bowerbird in a shady area (click on image for larger version)
Lateral view of an female Spotted Bowerbird in diffuse sunlight; note how different the colours appear to be compared to the photos above (click on image for larger version)
Only a few feathers of the nuchal crest are pink; the rest is dark-grey (click on image for larger version); the last remainders of pink on its lores visible in the close-up view above indicate that this is a young bird
Nest
Nest of a female Spotted Bowerbird in the early stages of construction; this nest was later abandoned (click on image for larger version)
Habits
Spotted Bowerbirds around our place have shown a taste for a varied diet - we have seen them drinking nectar from Bottlebrush flowers, eating seeds of Currajong 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 (click on image for larger version); the red ones are ripe
View of the bower of a Spotted Bowerbird (click on image for larger version); lacking blue trinkets, the bird has replaced these by green ones - unripe fruit from our garden...
The same bower about one year later; note how its appearance and decoration has changed (click on image for larger version)
Spotted Bowerbird inspecting a trinket near the bower (click on image for larger version)
While some other birds splash themselves wet when bathing, Spotted Bowerbirds fully immerse themselves in water.