The Great Bowerbird is a familiar and fascinating resident of the tropical north. Famous for its remarkable courtship displays, the male builds an intricate bower made of carefully arranged sticks, forming an avenue-like structure on the ground. Around this bower, he decorates with an eclectic collection of objects such as shells, bones, stones, glass fragments and bits of plastic, carefully selected to attract a female.
Despite their artistic talent, bowerbirds do not live inside these structures, they are purely performance stages for courtship rituals. Great Bowerbirds thrive in Darwin’s open woodlands, gardens, and urban edges, where their intelligence and adaptability allow them to make use of both natural and human-made materials.
These bowers have been here for at least 20 years. The current bird has been here for 5 years, and has become a familiar sight for me when I pass it on my bike.
You can see the bower from the cache location, which is about 50 metres opposite the bower. Please do not enter the bower or get too close, especially if the bird is present. The birds, both male and female, can often be found in the bower or perched on buildings nearby.
This is the first cache in a series about important bird locations in Darwin and nearby, and probably not mentioined in bird guides.
