Our male Satin Bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) are fascinated about all things blue. They spend their days flying around the gallery collecting pen lids, ribbons and other discarded pieces of blue rubbish. They use them to decorate their bower. These bowers are used to attract females to mate. It takes 7 years for a male Satin Bowerbird to mature, before that he has green and yellow feathers just like females. These young males are also fascinated with blue objects. This young male in the photo found a discarded hair tie that may have proved fatal for him. He had a very uncomfortable afternoon trying to get it off himself after it became caught around his neck. Being in captivity he was a little better off as we were able to catch him up and removed it quickly. If this had of happened in the wild he may have become tangled in a tree with the band and died. We try to keep an eye on what the birds are finding in the Forest Gallery, it is easy to check as most of the objects turn up in the bower. Anything like this hair tie or other objects that could be dangerous are promptly removed, other ‘treasures’ are left or spread around the gallery for the birds to re-gather.

Wearing a necklace is not what this Satin Bowerbird was planning for this hair tie. Photo: Alan Henderson. Source: Museum Victoria.