Regent bowerbird

Regent bowerbird
Male in Queensland, Australia
Female in Lamington National Park
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Ptilonorhynchidae
Genus: Sericulus
Species: S. chrysocephalus
Binomial name
Sericulus chrysocephalus
Lewin, 1808

The regent bowerbird (Sericulus chrysocephalus) is a medium-sized, up to 25 cm long, sexually dimorphic bowerbird. The male bird is black with a golden orange-yellow crown, mantle and black-tipped wing feathers. It has yellow bill, black feet and yellow iris. The female is a brown bird with whitish or fawn markings, grey bill, black feet and crown. The name commemorates a prince regent of the United Kingdom.

Diet

The diet consists mainly of fruits, berries and insects.

Behaviour

All male bowerbirds build bowers, which can be simple ground clearings or elaborate structures, to attract female mates. Regent bowerbirds in particular are known to mix a muddy greyish blue or pea green "saliva paint" in their mouths which they use to decorate their bowers. The male builds an avenue-type bower consisting of two walls of sticks, decorated with shells, seeds, leaves and berries. Regents will sometimes use wads of greenish leaves as "paintbrushes" to help spread the substance, representing one of the few known instances of tools used by birds.[2] The female builds a saucer-shaped nest made of twigs measuring 30 cm high and 15–20 cm wide often away from the bower.[3]

Habitat

An Australian endemic, the regent bowerbird is distributed to rainforests and margins of eastern Australia, from central Queensland to New South Wales.

A rare natural intergeneric hybrid between the regent bowerbird and the satin bowerbird is known as Rawnsley's bowerbird.

Conservation status

A common species throughout its range, the regent bowerbird is evaluated as "least concern" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Sericulus chrysocephalus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. ↑ John Farrand Jr., The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of Animal Life, 1982
  3. ↑ Regent Bowerbird | Birdlife Australia
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