The Satin Bowerbird, Ptilonorhynchus violaceus, is a typical bowerbird, found in eastern Australia.
Like all bowerbirds, the Satin Bowerbird shows highly complex courtship behaviour. Mate choice in Satin Bowerbirds has been studied in detail by a group of researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park. Males build specialized stick structures, called bowers, which they decorate with blue objects if these are available. Females visit these, and choose which male they will allow to mate with them. In addition to building their bowers, males carry out intense behavioural displays, called dances, and these can be treated as threat displays by the females. Nestbuilding and incubation is carried out by the females alone. Recent research has shown that female mate choice takes place in three stages:
- Visits to the bowers, before nests have been built, while the males are absent
- Visits to the bowers, before nests have been built, while the males are present and displaying
- Visits to a selection of the bowers, after nests have been built, leading to copulation with (typically) a single male.
Experimental manipulations of the ornaments around the bowers have shown that the choices of young females (those in their first or second year of breeding) are mainly influenced by the appearance of the bowers, and hence by the first stage of this process. Older females, which are less affected by the threatening aspect of the males' displays, make their choices more on the basis of the males' dancing displays.
It is not yet known whether this description would also hold good for other species of bowerbird.
References
- Coleman, S. W., Patricelli, G. L., & Borgia, G. (2004). Variable female preferences drive complex male displays. Nature, 428, 742-745.
Empty bower of the Satin Bowerbird
