If we didn’t recognize its behavior as familiar to our own, the bowerbird would be one of the most astonishing creatures on the planet. Bowerbirds are a family of 20 species scattered across the forests and shrub lands of Australia and New Guinea.16 What’s distinctive about these birds are their eponymous bowers—the elaborate structures built by the males of the species to attract females. Different species build their bowers in different shapes and sizes. Some are long avenue-like walkways flanked by walls of vertically placed sticks. Others are more like a maypole, circular structures
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