Satin Bowerbird
Ptilonorhynchus violaceus
Large plump bowerbird with short bill. Adult males are entirely dark glossy blue-purple color with a pale bill and bright violet eye. Adult females and immatures are primarily green and brown, with blue/pink eyes and scalloped underparts. This species can be quite loud and vocal (screeches, hisses, yowls). It is often encountered in pairs or small groups. Males are well-known for building a large bower decorated with small blue objects. Found in rainforests and wet eucalypt forests of eastern Australia.
Identification
Mature males have violet-blue eyes and are uniformly coloured black, however, light diffraction by the surface texture of the feathers results in an almost metallic sheen giving a deep shiny blue appearance. Immature males are coloured and marked the same as females and are often mistaken for them.<p>Females might be mistaken for the green catbird or spotted catbird with distinctively green/brown or otherwise entirely brown upper body and lighter under body with a distinct reticulated or scalloped pattern, but with very striking blue eyes.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Ptilonorhynchus violaceus
- Authority
- (Vieillot, 1816)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Ptilonorhynchidae
- Genus
- Ptilonorhynchus
Range and habitat
The satin bowerbird is common in rainforest and tall moist sclerophyll forest in eastern Australia from southern Queensland to Victoria. There is also an isolated population in the Wet Tropics of north Queensland.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Turdus ignobilis
A drab thrush, common in open habitats and woodlands in the lowlands but also wanders up into Andean foothills. Nondescript grayish-brown with a pale whitish belly. Note indistinct streaking on throat; some populations also show a white patch on chest. Sexes similar. Usually seen singly or in pairs. Conspicuous. Song is a typical thrushlike series of musical phrases.
Lesser Bird-of-Paradise
Paradisaea minor
A large bird of lowland and foothill forest and edge. Both sexes have yellow back and yellow eye. Male has a chestnut breast and white and yellow plumes which he raises above his back during his display, in which he flaps his chestnut wings. The male is distinguished from Greater by his yellow back and Emperor by his brown chest. Females distinguished from other species by their white underparts and black hood. Male gives a typical, repeated, nasal squawk.
Lita Woodpecker
Piculus litae
Scarce, yellow-faced woodpecker of lowland and foothill rainforest in western Colombia and northwestern Ecuador. Both sexes have olive upperparts, strongly barred or scaled underparts, and red wing patch. Male has red crown and mustache stripe; female has little or no red on head. No overlap with the similar White-throated Woodpecker. Forages at middle to upper levels of the forest, sometimes with mixed-species flocks. Call is a harsh scream.
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