The flame bowerbird is a rainforest
bird distributed in and endemic to rainforests of Papua New Guinea. It is one
of the most brilliantly colored bowerbirds. This bird is the first bowerbird
described by naturalists, due to male's exquisitely colored plumage. The Flame
Bowerbirds named after the elaborate structures, or bowers, built and decorated
with colorful objects by the males, bowerbirds have one of the most exclusive
courtship rituals in the animal kingdom.
However, it was earlier thought
to be a bird of paradise. Indeed, the male flame bowerbird also has a courtship
display along with his bower, and he twists his tails and his wings to the
side, and then shakes his head rapidly. The Flame Bowerbird is a medium sized
bird, measure upto 25 cm long, with flame orange and golden yellow plumage with
elongated neck plumes and yellow-tipped black tail. It builds an
"avenue-type" bower with two side walls of sticks.
However, the female bird is an
olive brown bird with yellow or golden below. The courtship behavior of the
flame bowerbird was filmed by Japanese photographer Tadashi Shimada in Dancers
on Fire, a documentary that aired on the Smithsonian Channel. Although the male
appeared to court females twice, no successful mating was filmed as the female
moved away when the male mounted. However, Shimada filmed other strange behavior,
such as a male courting a juvenile male and numerous juvenile males as well as
an adult male appearing to share one bower, only to be destroyed by another
juvenile male. The bird habitats is lowland and montane rainforest and adjacent
second growth, occurs from lowlands up to 1400m, aureus mainly at 850 - 1400m.
The Flame Bowrbirds diet is little
known certainly includes fruits and insects. Forages singly or in small groups,
also with other fruit-eating species like Vogelkop Bowerbird. The display
season starts August to November, when male builds and attends a bower to
attract females. They build a nest alone and also breed alone.The bower is a
so-called avenue bower built with sticks. It's about 23cm long, 16cm wide and 19cm
high. It's decorated with purple, blue and brown fruits, flowers, snail-shells
and leaves. The male performs a dance to attract the female to the bower.
There’re two different
subspecies, sometimes considered full species: Sericulus aureus ardens (flame
bowerbird), from south-western New Guinea, with orange-faced male -Sericulus
aureus aureus (masked bowerbird), the nominate form of north-western New
Guinea, with black-faced and black-throated male. The flame bowerbird is assessed
as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
