Bowerbird obsession with blue? - thank you

["calyptorhynchus via Canberrabirds " <>]

About 20 years ago I was walking with our two sons around the golf course in Hughes/Garran. We stopped and looked at a very obvious bower right by the path and I explained to the boys that the bowerbird liked to collect blue things. They said 'let's give him something blue', but the only thing I had on me was a biro in my pocket that had a pale blue cap. I put it on the edge of the bower and we retreated. After a few minutes the bowerbird came back, bounced around and came up to the pen-cap. He looked at it, then flicked it deftly out of the bower!

JL

On Wed, 19 Nov 2025 at 11:55, Rob Geraghty via Canberrabirds <> wrote:

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.

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John Leonard
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www.jleonard.net

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