MacGregor's bowerbird (''Amblyornis macgregoriae'') is a medium-sized, up to 26 cm long, olive brown
bowerbird
Bowerbirds () make up the bird family Ptilonorhynchidae. They are renowned for their unique courtship behaviour, where males build a structure and decorate it with sticks and brightly coloured objects in an attempt to attract a mate.
The family ...
of
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
's mountain forests, roughly the size and shape of an
American robin
The American robin (''Turdus migratorius'') is a migratory bird of the true thrush genus and Turdidae, the wider thrush family. It is named after the European robin because of its reddish-orange breast, though the two species are not clos ...
or a
Eurasian blackbird. The male is adorned with an erectile orange yellow crest, that is partly hidden until shown in courtship display. The unadorned female is similar to the male, but without the crest. Superb mimics, they are known for imitating other birds, pigs, rushing water, and even human speech.
The
polygamous
Polygamy (from Late Greek , "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more than one h ...
male builds a tower-like "maypole-type" bower, an elaborate courtship structure, with a central pole of twigs surrounded by a dish of moss with raised walls approximately 1 meter in diameter. He decorates the twigs of the maypole with flowers, fruits, insects and other objects. The diet consists mainly of fruits and insects.
When a female comes in proximity to the bower, the male struts and calls, and opens his crest to display its full color. Hiding the crest except during sexual display is thought to minimize his vulnerability to predators.
Widespread and common throughout its range, MacGregor's bowerbird is evaluated as Least Concern on the
IUCN Red List
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...
of Threatened Species.
MacGregor's bowerbird was named in dedication to ‘Lady Macgregor’, wife of Sir
William McGregor, Administrator of British New Guinea during 1888–98. Sir William's surname was originally, and thus formally, McGregor but he adopted the spelling MacGregor while in New Guinea as his personal preference.
References
External links
BirdLife Species Factsheet
{{Taxonbar, from=Q766708
MacGregor's bowerbird
MacGregor's bowerbird