Southern Downs BirdsSatin Bowerbird Spotted Pardalote Striated Pardalote Superb Fairy-wren
The Satin Bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) exhibits sexual dimorphism with males and females looking nothing like one another. However, this is only after about seven years, when the male attains the full satiny sheen of the glossy blue-black plumage, a pale blusish white bill and violet-blue iris. Young males and females look similar in appearance and it is only about the fifth year, when young males begin the colour change of the adult plumage.
Young males and the females are what is referred to as ‘green’ birds, their plumage being an olive-green above, off-white with dark scalloping blow and brown wings and tail. Their bill is also brownish in colour. Both males and females have the blue eyes.
The male Satin Bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) are renowned for decorating their bowers with all sorts of blue objects that have been collected from the surrounding area. The objects can include seed pods and fruits, feathers, butterfly wings, and artificial objects from discarded blue plastic, ball-point pens, string, marbles and pieces of glass. On occasion there may be objects that are different in colour, especially green-yellow objects, all carefully arranged around the bower by the male bowerbird to attract a female.
Check out our section on Birds > Bowerbirds > Satin Bowerbird
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Aves
- Order: Passeriformes
- Family: Ptilonorhynchidae
- Genus: Ptilonorhynchus
- Species: Ptilonorhynchus violaceus
Footnote & References
- Birds from all over but mostly Ballandean, QLD © Marc Newman, Flickr
- Ptilonorhynchus violaceus (Vieillot, 1816), Satin Bowerbird, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/d6192a35-3f44-458b-9505-a571955fc476
Southern Downs BirdsSatin Bowerbird Spotted Pardalote Striated Pardalote Superb Fairy-wren
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