this is a female Satin Bowerbird

click here to see a male Satin Bowerbird

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DESCRIPTION

Male: 28 to 32cm in height. Glossy blue-black feathers over entire body. Beak is bluish-white, eye blue, legs greenish-white. Relatively short tail.

Female: Feathers on upperparts are olive or grey-green. Underparts are a washed yellow-buff with fine brown scaly pattern on throat becoming bolder on breast and flanks. Wings and tail are rufous brown. Bill is dark brown, legs grey-brown and eye piercing blue.

Juvenile: Similar colours to female. Third and fourth year males acquire green throat with fine white spots or streaks. Green zone across upperbreast. Males acquire blue-black feathers in the sixth or seventh year.

Voice: Noisy in breeding season, especially in the vicinity of the bower. Loud, harsh grinding, churring and wheezy buzzing; rapid, rollicking "tzzaar-tzzarr-tzzarrtz-tzzarr"; whistled "whitchiew" and dingo-like "wee-oo".

Due to the magnificent color of the male Satin Bowerbird and their unusual courting technique this bird is one of the best known birds in Australia. The Satin Bowerbird can be found along the coast and inland of south-east Australia from the south-east corner of Queensland to Victoria. A second race, Ptilonorhynchus violaceus minor, can be found in the Queensland highlands above 900 metres south of Cooktown to near Townsville. The bowerbird prefers wooded habitat including rainforests, eucalypt forest, open woodland and scrub, paddocks and orchards and suburban gardens. It breeds between September and February. The mating season is heralded by the males wheezy, chattering song which encourages females to the bower. The bower is made of two parallel arched walls made of twigs and grass and stands around 35cm high and 45cm long. Display objects, mostly blue, are placed inside the bower to attract the female. During the courting period the male will seize the display objects in the beak and adopts a trance like pose; head low, eyes suffused lilac-pink; he then leaps sideways, flares the wings and tail and continues in the mating dance/song. A shallow nest, positioned in the fork of a tree, is made from sticks and lined with soft material such as leaves. The male takes no part in nest building. 1 to 3 eggs are laid and incubation is around 21 to 22 days. Young fledge at around 21 days.