Jack, the Forest Gallery's resident adult male Satin Bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) has recently constructed a new bower.

Male Satin Bowerbirds build a specialised stick structure which they decorate with blue objects. In the Forest Gallery this includes bottle tops, straws and scraps of blue paper, but in the wild can include blue flowers and berries.

The purpose of the bower is to help to find a mate. Female Satin Bowerbirds will visit a male's bower and decide from the way it is built and how it is decorated whether to choose the male to be the father of her chicks. The male will also perform a number of behavioural displays or dances to try to woo the female.

In the Forest Gallery, Jack usually constructs his bower in the same place, so we are in the process of setting up "Bower Cam", a camera located in the Forest Gallery which points to the spot the bower is in. Unfortunately this time around, Jack decided to construct his bower elsewhere. So we have had to relocate his bower to his usual spot.

This may seem harsh - I mean, Jack put a lot of time and effort into constructing this bower, and now we've disturbed it. Well this kind of behaviour is exactly what would happen in the wild, as bowers are constantly being sabotaged by competing males.

Hopefully Jack will accept that his bower has now moved, and he will shortly be able to be viewed on "Bower Cam".

Jack's new bower, which has now been moved to his usual bower site. Photo: Deanna Henderson Source: Museum Victoria

"Bower Cam" will soon be up and running. Photo: Deanna Henderson Source: Museum Victoria