A bird that uses his beak to great effect to mix up some blue paint and decorate his bower!
A bird decked out in stunning gold and jet black combined mixed with a golden orange-yellow crown.
Meet the Regent Bowerbird
Photo Courtesy of Instagram/@opa2115
The Regent bowerbird (Sericulus chrysocephalus), is a medium-sized, up to 25 cm long, sexually dimorphic bowerbird. The male bird is black with a golden orange-yellow crown, mantle, and black-tipped wing feathers. He has a yellow bill, black feet, and yellow eyes.
Photo Courteys of Glen Fergus / CC BY-SA 2.5
The female of the species is pretty much a brown bird with whitish or fawn markings, grey bill, black feet, and crown.
Photo Courtesy of Instagram/@birdsofaussie
This bird is native to Australia, mainly found throughout the continents eastern Australian rainforests and its margins and central Queensland to New South Wales.
Photo Courtesy of Seabamirum / CC BY 2.0
The Regent Bowerbirds diet consists mainly of fruits, berries and insects.
Photo Courtesy of David Lochlin / CC BY-SA 2.0
The male bowerbirds build bowers, which can be simple ground clearings or much more elaborate structures, to attract a female mate.
Related Reading:
–There is a good reason why this fluffy bundle of cuteness is often described as the “jewel of the bush!”
The male mixes a muddy greyish blue or pea green “saliva paint” in their mouths which they use to decorate their bowers.
Photo Courtesy of Dominic Sherony / CC BY 2.0
He builds an avenue-type bower consisting of two walls of sticks, decorated with shells, seeds, leaves, and berries. Regents will sometimes use a wad of greenish leaves as “paintbrushes” to help spread the substance. This represents one of the few known instances of tool use by a bird.
Photo Courtesy of Bowerbirdaus / CC BY-SA 4.0
The male may end mating with up to several females and takes no part in raising young.
Photo Courtesy of seabamirum / CC BY 2.0
Being a common species throughout its range, the Regent Bowerbird is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Photo Courtesy of Dominic Sherony / CC BY 2.0
Watch and listen to this bird right here in the video below:
