That bird, unlike the cooperative long-tailed tit, leaves nest building entirely to his mate. 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.
