Bower Birds - Courtship

At the front of the paddock in which my farm house sits is a tangle of old bushes and trees.  Here, each year, in early spring, a male Bower Bird arrives and builds a bower and starts to collect bright objects, beetles, bits of colored glass,  to decorate it.

In the trees, females can be seen, waiting for the dances to begin.

The birds can mimic other bird calls.  

The male bower bird has come to the same place to build for a couple of years - and seems to have learnt how to mimic the sound of my chainsaw and truck (as well as one of the guitar rifts from Coldplay).  I know when he is around because it sounds like someone is cutting down one of my trees in the front garden... although I have never been able to catch him in the act.

Female bower bird

Male bower bird

Peter Quinton