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4/5/10

Male Bowerbirds Decorate to Find a Mate !


Have you ever seen a bird with its own bachelor pad? If you tuned in this Sunday to the Birds episode of "LIFE," you may have spotted the male bowerbird building his own love nest.
To attract a partner, the male bowerbird builds and decorates an elaborate nest, which can take weeks to assemble. The bower -- a structure woven around a sapling that looks almost like a wooden tent -- is carpeted with moss and decorated with flowers, colorful insects, fungi or even dung, depending on each bird's design sensibilities.
Think you can decorate like a male bowerbird? Try constructing your own bower here and see if you can attract a mate.
Considering all the trouble this bird goes through to plan and build its bower, you'd think it would spend a night or two in this dwelling. However, the structure is used purely for mating.
Decorating isn't the male bowerbirds only talent. After all, what's a love nest without a little ambiance?
This bird has not only an eye for design, but also an ear for song. This crooner is able to mimic a number of sounds from its surrounding habit and use them to weave together complex arias.
While the bowerbird may go through a lot of trouble to make himself presentable to a female, this doesn't necessarily mean that all of his time and effort will pay off. Other males generally construct bowers nearby, and their sense of style and song may be more along the lines of what a female bowerbird is looking for.
/LIFE Big Pic

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