Great bowerbirds are known for their elaborate mating displays and constructions. New research done at Deakin University in Queensland, Australia by John Endler and his team, has found that male great bowerbirds actually build staged scenes that make themselves look larger or smaller than they actually are deceiving the females.
Male great bowerbirds build bowe
rs. A bower consists of an avenue and a court. The avenue is constructed by two rows of tightly packed sticks that opens onto a court. The court acts as a stage for the males to perform their displays for females. The avenue causes there to be only one location for females to view the displays. Males carefully place pebbles, bones, and shells in the court with smaller objects towards the front and larger objects towards the back. This placement causes the objects to seem big and the court small. This causes the males to appear larger in size. The male will perform his visual display and if the female is impressed she will mate with the male right on the stage.
Endler and his team rearranged the items in the courts. But within three days the items were back to where the males had carefully placed them to begin with. This study reveals that these birds not only are using structure and color but are also using perspective by manipulating the geometry of the arrangements.
Its amazing that these birds are able to recognize perspective and were able to utilize perspective to deceive females. I wonder if females will ever catch on to the tricks these males are creating.
Posted by: Sara Weaver
Wow, these birds deserve a lot of credit! They are very cunning and highly aware of the influence of their surroundings. I understand how structure plays a role, but how does color contribute to the display as well? In the picture, it seems that they may prefer to put white on the ground?
ReplyDeletePosted by Katie Kalutkiewicz
Great post. I was wondering how they compete with other males. Are their bowers ever close to each other, or do they ever steal from other bowers?
ReplyDeletePosted by Jen Kodela
I agree, these birds do deserve a lot of credit. Bower bird structures and color contributions vary geographically as well as individually. Some populations may prefer something different then other populations. Some prefer dull objects while others prefer colorful objects. White may have been the preference of the bird pictured.
ReplyDeleteMale competition does take place. In fact sometimes males steal objects from other males and even steal the bowers of other males. It’s a tough life being a bower bird, constantly building something so precisely then getting robbed or worse, getting the whole thing stolen!
Posted by: Sara Weaver
Very interesting! It seams as though the males go to great lengths to attract the females. Do the males ever prove to be selective when it comes to the females they mate with. Or maybe the way they build their bower indicates the preference of female?
ReplyDeletePosted by Amber Kapchinske
ReplyDelete(oct 17 5:54am)