David Attenborough - Animal behaviour of the Australian bowerbird - BBC wildlife

( birds chirping )

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: And this is the work

of the master builder among bowerbirds.

I'm in the Vogelkop,

on the far Western tip of New Guinea,

and this is the bower of the Vogelkop bowerbird.

And what an astonishment it is.

Surely one of the wonders of the natural world.

The bower has been completely roofed over,

thatched with these stems of orchids.

It's been built around the base of a sapling.

It has a stout pillar right in the middle,

and it's got two smaller pillars on the side to support it.

The whole of the treasury

is five or six yards across,

and what treasures it contains,

or what variety of treasures it contains.

On the far side

there are the black stems of tree fans.

Here is the lawn, neatly planted with moss,

and on it the shiny wing covers of beetles.

There are orange fruit.

There are these glowing orange dead leaves.

These are the acorns of the oak trees,

the tropical oaks, which are common around here.

Behind me, there are black fruits,

all of which has been brought specially by the bird.

Bowerbirds are so dedicated to their work

that even if you sit out in the open beside a bower,

they will often continue to work,

provided you sit absolutely still.

This Vogelkop bowerbird

is the plainest of his family,

with no sign whatever of a crest.

But the more spectacular

the display in your bower,

presumably the less need you have

to impress your mate with bright feathers,

and it's difficult to imagine a more

impressive collection of treasures than this.

But they do have to be properly arranged to show them off really well.

Flowers, whenever they appear in the forest,

have an obvious appeal to a bird

who has a passion for interior decoration.

From one point of view,

these adornments are better than feathers.

Individual birds of paradise have no option

over the shape and color of their plumes.

They have to display with what their genes have given them.

Bowerbirds, however, can choose.

If a male decides that he stands a better chance

of seducing a female with pink rather than blue,

well, then, he can decorate his bower that way.

So it's the tastes and fancies of the females,

single mothers who have no need

of the help of the male in bringing up their families,

that has led to these extravagant exhibitions.

Whether or not the bowerbirds are closely related to the birds of paradise,

both families have reacted in remarkably similar ways to the asset they share:

The huge richness of this forest.