Category Archives: Bowerbird
Satin Bowerbird at Mount Annan
This morning I paid my first visit to the Australian Botanic Garden at Mount Annan. The gardens lie to the south west of Sydney, on the east coast of Australia. They’re well worth a visit, with beautifully laid out pathways and flower beds, and a number of different bird species.
A female Satin Bowerbird pottered around a bed of plants:
Female Satin Bowerbirds are gorgeous, with violet eyes and soft shades of green, yellow, and brown plumage. This is only the second time I’ve photographed a bowerbird. Both times they were female.
It was interesting to see this bird tucking into the carefully laid out plants. I didn’t know that birds can be this keen on eating their greens!
Common name: Satin Bowerbird
Scientific name: Ptilonorhynchus violaceus
Approximate length: 28-34 cm
Date spotted: 16 October 2022 (spring)
Location: Mount Annan, New South Wales, Australia: 34°04’16.3″S 150°45’58.1″E
Satin Bowerbird has purple eyes
I spent this weekend in the Blue Mountains, a beautiful area to the west of Sydney. On an early morning walk this morning, I heard some interested chattering and calling from a group of birds. I went to investigate, and found this lovely creature:
That purple eye isn’t a trick of the light. This bird really does have purple eyes. It’s a female Satin Bowerbird. My first sighting!
Bowerbirds are so called because of their unique behaviour around breeding time. The male bird (which I didn’t see) builds a large construction on the ground, made up of various bits of vegetation. The shape and size of the construction depends on the type of bowerbird. Satin Bowerbirds use upright-standing dry grass or twigs to form an intriguing tunnel. It’s almost heart-shaped. Then they gather decorations to entice the female to their bower. Satin Bowerbirds love blue. They’ll use blue petals, berries, bits of plastic, even entire spoons and other utensils — provided they’re blue!
Here’s another of the birds that I saw this morning, looking alert as I hove into view, and showing off her spangled front feathers, with a light green blush on the chest:
The next picture shows the back of the bird:
Common name: Satin Bowerbird
Scientific name: Ptilonorhynchus violaceus
Approximate length: 28-34 cm
Date spotted: 22 November 2021 (spring)
Location: Mount Victoria, NSW, Australia: 33°35’11.4″S 150°15’15.8″E
Sydney Birder 