The Bowerbird's Grand Performance! | Life Story

Lots of species will go all out to land a mate, but few courtship routines are as elaborate as that of the bowerbird. These birds craft nest-like structures, known as bowers, and decorate them with attention-getting items. Females tour many of these local bowers, assessing both structure and suitor before selecting a mate.

Male satin bowerbirds festoon the front terraces of their bowers with shiny or colored objects, preferring those of a vivid blue hue.
Bowerbirds don’t discriminate when hunting for objects to add to their bowers, displaying natural treasures like fresh flowers, feathers, and cicada wings alongside objects like ballpoint pen lids and bottlecaps.
Decorating a bower doesn’t end at displaying objects. Some satin bowerbirds mix plant material with saliva to make a “paint” they spread over their bower walls.
Competition for bower decorations is fierce, and male bowerbirds will steal desirable trinkets from other bowers to improve their own.
If a female admires a bower, she enters it, but the mating ritual isn’t over. The male then proceeds to perform a dance while holding a favorite trinket in his beak.