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Bowerbird Dance

One of the prize possesions of the Satin Bowerbird is a blue parrot feather. All three Satin Bowerbird bowers I visited was decorated with a Crimson Rosella parrot feather. Did you know the Archibold's Bowerbird from New Quinea will decorate his bower with the ornamental head plumes (feathers) of the King of Saxony bird of paradise to impress the females. The idea of a bird travelling a great distance to collect such a rare feather for swooning females is one of the reasons bowerbirds fascinate me.

I was fortunate enough to witness a courtship display of the Satin Bowerbird. He danced using the light to show his indigo blue feather sheen, he showed his possessions by carefully picking them up and re-arranging and finally he picked up a bottle cap ring with a fresh green leaf and gave quite the perfomence displaying the ring and leaf as if to seal the deal. ​Here is a study of the courtship display. This is called "Courtship of the Satin Bowerbird" 9 x 12. I'm painting smaller studies first before I do a large Satin Bowerbird painting.

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