Where I live we occasionally put out food for the wild birds around. There are a few species that come and visit including King parrots and one of my favourites, the Bowerbird.
They love bread and fruit
These guys can be found all around Australia and New Guinea though there are different types that inhabit different areas. The silky bowerbird is probably the most common and also one of the most attractive of the group.
The female bowerbirds have a green/brown/yellow sort of coloured feather but the males are a deep purple and look quite incredible sometimes. They also possess very colourful eyes which you don't always notice but after having one come into the rescue became quite obvious. She had these gorgeous deep purple/dark blue eyes and she would fly over you and sit on a branch next to you and watch as you went about your day.
Check out that purple eye
These birds have one of the most complex mating rituals and consists of constructing a bower. These consist of twigs wrapped around a sapling or formed into walls. In some cases they even have a roof for this little hut. These constructions can become quite elaborate and have a direct correlation to their success of finding a mate.
Wikimedia commons
They will often try and find colourful objects to display around the bower and studies suggest that particular colours attract particular females.
The Bowerbird is related to corvids and also has a strong relation to the lyrebird. This makes sense because the Bowerbird has great mimicking abilities and will often mimic the call of another bird, we once watched one squawk like a cockatoo.
When they come to feed at our place they often come in groups and you can see who is in charge. One bird will often take a spot to eat and chase away any others who try and approach. They also routinely push and shove with the parrots.
Bowerbirds eat mostly fruit and vegetation. They will occasionally supplement with insects but this is more common in young birds. They are fairly friendly and will come close to us but not close enough to touch.
Most of these birds will live for 8-10 years which is pretty decent but there has been cases of one satin bowerbird living for up to 26 years so there is a pretty big difference.
I quite like watching these guys fly about outside through the kitchen window, seeing how they behave and what they do. It will be a shame when we move but hopefully the next tenants feed them too :P
All pictures unless otherwise stated were taken by my partner Lydia who is a fabulous photographer and I continue to try and convince to get up on HIVE