FWIW, I've attached a photo I took in about 1985 of a Satin Bowerbird in his bower at O'Reilly's in Lamington National Park. There's no feathers visible, but
there's native tobacco flowers (which are somewhat purple). There's also an extensive collection of blue plastic filched from the nearby campgrounds. One of the blue Mortein lids contained rainwater which he was mixing with soil and painting onto the sticks
inside the bower. You can see that sticks to his right are shiny from having been painted.
I think I have seen Rosella feathers in bowers. There were certainly a lot available at O’Reilly’s. The bower about 100m from my place in Kambah has been destroyed,
but I only saw blue plastic in his collection.
There was an article in Scientific American in the 80s which described a study where numbered pieces of blue glass were evenly distributed amongst bowers in an
area, then counted over time. The Bowerbirds were stealing from each other, and the glass moved from bower to bower. It was the first studied example of animals stealing items from each other which were not food.
From: Canberrabirds [
On Behalf Of ben milbourne via Canberrabirds
Sent: Wednesday, 19 November 2025 9:38 AM
To: 'Canberra birds' <>
Subject: [Canberrabirds] Bowerbird obsession with blue? - thank you
Thank you to all who have contributed to answering this query. I wonder if the availability of blue feathers, flowers etc in an area affects the population distribution generally or breeding range specifically.
Yes, was being curious re our local species the Satin bowerbird. However, reading the tidbits of other species collections is also very interesting. I guess, there is also the option of using one's own feathers which could announce your
own maturity and thus readiness to mate.
