The Genius of Birds

by Jennifer Ackerman

No, this strange and elaborate creation, known as a bower, is built for one purpose only—seduction—by a creature of extraordinary craft and intelligence, the satin bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus). So remarkable is the bowerbird family that the ornithologist E. Thomas Gilliard once remarked that birds should be split into two groups: bowerbirds and all other birds. Bowerbirds are noted for the hallmarks of intelligence: large brains, long lives, and extended periods of development. (It takes them seven years to mature.) All twenty or so species live in the rainforests and woodlands of New Guinea and Australia; seventeen species build bowers. They are the only animals on the planet—except us, perhaps—known to use objects in extravagant displays to lure mates.

Wow, quite an endorsement!