Male bowerbirds hope to dazzle females with bright human-made items

Key Takeaways

• Male bowerbirds are notorious for their complex mating rituals.
• They build intricate tunnels out of twigs—the bowers from which they get their name—and then decorate them with random colorful items gleaned from the environment.
• When a female of the species shows up to check out a male’s fancy digs, the male tosses his shiniest objects in her direction and shows off his plumage in hopes of impressing her.
• According to a new paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science by University of Exeter scientists, urbanization and the associated growing availability of brightly colored human-made items have had a significant impact on courtship display behavior in Australian male bowerbirds.
• There are marked differences in the choice of decorations for bowerbirds in urban versus rural environments.