From: giraffe@longneck.inc (giraffe~⇔)
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.pictures.artpics
Subject: Re: Critters - < r > - KitchenBert_AndSoTheyBuild01-iej.jpg
Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2000 02:55:11 GMT

>*
>*From a educational book for children
>*And So They Build
>*Written & illustrated by Bert Kitchen
>*
>*ISBN 1-56402-502-0


KitchenBert_AndSoTheyBuild01-iej

A male satin bowerbird is looking for a mate
and so he builds.....

Satin bowerbirds live in the rainforests of eastern
Australia.

When the male is ready to attract a mate, he clears a
site in dappled sunlight and shade on the forest floor.
Then he builds a bower of sticks and decorates the
ground with whatever bright objects he can find -
parrot feathers, shells, flowers, fruits, leaves, and
even scraps of cloth. Most of the objects are blue,
and the bowerbird often paints the inside walls with
the blue juice of berries, too. He carpets the open
end of his bower with twigs, making a stage on which
he will perform his courtship dance.

If his efforts attract a female satin bowerbird, she
will enter his bower and wait inside to mate with
him. Then the two birds will desert the bower for a
nest built by the female in a tree nearby.