$9,990.00
Natalie’s Inspiration: “Satin Bowerbirds are a frequent visitor to my garden. I love their bold and cheeky personality. Watching them swoop in under the tree canopy to drink from the birdbath is a joy. I have found them to be very smart and near impossible to keep away from my blueberries and peaches! I wanted to share their particular building skills in this painting. I haven’t been lucky enough to find a bower close to home, but this particular bower that I used as reference for this painting is at my brother-in-laws place only half an hour away from my house. Clever birds!!!”.
The Satin Bowerbird, Ptilonorhynchus violaceus is a bowerbird endemic to eastern Australia. A rare natural intergeneric hybrid between the Satin Bowerbird and the Regent Bowerbird is known as Rawnsley’s Bowerbird. The Satin Bowerbird is common in rainforest and tall wet sclerophyll forest in eastern Australia from southern Queensland to Victoria. There is also an isolated population in the Wet Tropics of north Queensland.
Like all bowerbirds, the Satin Bowerbird shows highly complex courtship behaviour. Male choice in Satin Bowerbirds has been studied in detail by a group of researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park. Males build specialized stick structures, called bowers, which they decorate with blue, yellow, and shiny objects if these are available, including berries, flowers, and even ballpoint pens, drinking straws and other discarded plastic items. As the males mature, they use more blue objects than other colours. Females visit these and choose which male they will allow to mate with them. In addition to building their bowers, males carry out intense behavioural displays called dances to woo their mates, but these can be treated as threat displays by the females. Nest building and incubation are carried out by the females alone.
Original painting by Natalie Jane Parker
Click image to view FULL SIZE PAINTING
In stock
