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Great Bowerbird — printable fact sheet
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Great Bowerbird
Chlamydera nuchalis
Chlamydera nuchalis, of northern Australia, builds an avenue bower - two parallel walls of sticks - and then does something no other animal is known to do: it constructs a forced-perspective illusion. The male lays out a court of bones, snail shells and pale stones in front of t…
Did you know?
- Despite their elaborate courtship displays, female Great Bowerbirds raise their young entirely on their own, with no help from the males.
- Great bowerbirds strongly favour white, gray and green objects and readily incorporate human litter, so bowers near towns fill with glass, screws and plastic. The illusion works only from the female's fixed vantage point in the avenue, meaning the male is building for a specific viewer's eye position. Some bowers are used and rebuilt on the same spot for decades by successive males.
What I learned
Draw the great bowerbird
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