Satin bowerbird

Satin bowerbird

What is a satin bowerbird?

Known for their U-shaped bowers decorated with an assortment of blue objects, mature male satin bowerbirds are a glossy blue-black in colour. Their shiny plumage is like the sheen of satin fabric. Females and immature males are olive green in colour. The scientific name is Ptilonorhynchus violaceus. Violaceus is Latin for ‘violet-coloured’, relating to the plumage of mature males.

Immature males and female satin bowerbirds look similar to catbirds, which inhabit similar areas. Catbirds have red eyes whereas satin bowerbirds have violet-blue eyes.

What do satin bowerbirds look like?

Satin bowerbirds are medium-sized birds. Male satin bowerbirds are 7 years of age when they are fully covered in their shiny black plumage. They start developing it from 5 years of age. Until this time, males and females look alike – with olive green backs and yellow-green chests, with brown edges on their chest feathers giving a scalloped pattern. They have brown flight and tail feathers. Satin bowerbirds have brown pointed beaks and violet-blue eyes. Mature males have a pale green beak.

What do satin bowerbirds sound like?

Satin bowerbirds have a variety of calls used in courtship and defending their territory. Calls include mechanical churring sounds, whistles and harsh wheezing hissing sounds. Male satin bowerbirds also mimic other bird calls as part of their courtship displays.

Where do satin bowerbirds live?

Satin bowerbirds are found along the south-eastern and east coast of Australia. They inhabit forested areas, preferring wetter forests and rainforest. Found in bushland close to urban areas, satin bowerbirds are sometimes spotted in leafy parks and gardens. They are shy birds that usually remain in dense foliage. An array of blue items on the ground indicates the presence of satin bowerbirds.

In the cooler months of the non-breeding season, satin bowerbirds form feeding flocks of ‘green’ birds that travel inland to more open country. Black mature male birds also join the flocks across the winter months.

What do satin bowerbirds eat?

Satin bowerbirds eat mainly fruit and berries. Fruit eaters are called frugivores. They also eat insects and leaves.

How are satin bowerbirds adapted to their environment?

A behavioural adaptation unique to bowerbirds is the building and decoration of a bower used for attracting and courting females. In a sheltered area on the ground males construct a U-shaped ‘avenue’ of twigs. Each twig is individually poked into the ground to create 2 parallel ‘walls’. The male uses his beak and saliva with chewed vegetation or charcoal to paint the internal surfaces of the walls.

The male decorates the ground around the bower with natural objects such as blue flowers and berries, blue feathers and dried snail shells. In urban areas, bowers are decorated with foraged blue plastic objects such as pegs and milk bottle lids. Immature males construct practice bowers. Mature male bowerbirds spend their days maintaining and improving their bowers for potential female mates.

Female bowerbirds judge the quality of potential male mates on the quality of their bowers, as well as the physical displays of the male within his bower. Scientific studies suggest that satin bowerbirds construct their bowers in such a way that the male is illuminated or lit from the front making him look extra shiny to female bowerbirds.

When a female satin bowerbird approaches a bower, the male starts his display within the walls of his bower, much like a dancer on stage. With wings outstretched and quivering to make his feathers shimmer, the male bowerbird struts and bows in a ritualised dance. The display includes picking up objects. During the display the male makes mechanical churring calls and mimics other bird calls in an effort to attract the female. If he is successful mating occurs within the bower. 

Structural adaptations of bowerbirds include the pointy beak for eating fruit and insects, carrying bower and nest making materials and for constructing bowers and nests. Other structural adaptations include wings for flying, feet for walking on the ground and perching and the camouflaged plumage of females and immature males.

How do satin bowerbirds reproduce and what is their life-cycle?

The breeding season for satin bowerbirds is over the warmer months of September to February. The male satin bowerbird uses his decorative bower and physical displays to attract a female. If she chooses him, mating occurs within the bower. Males mate with more than one female.

Well away from the bower, the female constructs a nest of loose twigs and sticks lined with dry leaves in a tree or tall shrub. The nest is located 2 to 30 metres above the ground. Incubating and raising the young on her own, the female lays 2 to 3 eggs which she incubates for 21 days. Incubate means to keep warm. The hatchlings leave the nest after 21 days. They stay within a ‘nursery’ area in which the female continues to care for them for 8 or 9 weeks.

What is the role of satin bowerbirds in the environment?

As mainly fruit eaters – frugivores – satin bowerbirds play an important role in dispersing seeds in forests. Seeds from fruit eaten by the birds pass through their body and exit as scats on the ground. Viable seeds take root and germinate.

What threats do satin bowerbirds face and how can we help them?

Loss of habitat is a threat to bowerbirds. Protecting and planting native forests and vegetation corridors can help protect populations of satin bowerbirds.

Spending most of the day on the ground, satin bowerbirds are vulnerable to attacks by domestic cats. Cat owners should keep cats indoors, or if outside, cats should wear a harness with a bell attached.

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