Bowerbirds

Book excerpt: The bowerbirds are famed for their unique bower-building behaviour which, in some species, can be a complex construction of sticks and other vegetable matter that can grow to two metres or so in diameter and about one and a half metres high. Many species are also accomplished mimics, and are able to copy the calls of other bird species, other natural and mechanical sounds and even human speech. These fascinating birds are confined to Australia and New Guinea and, due to the difficulty in accessing certain areas of their distribution, the study of their habits has been challenging. This book aims to condense the published knowledge acquired by ornithologists that have studied the bowerbirds since their discovery, and deliver it in a format suitable for natural history enthusiasts at any level.