The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think

by Jennifer Ackerman

When a male great bowerbird displays, he stands at the edge of an avenue entrance so just his head shows to the female in the avenue, then plucks up a decoration and parades it in front of her before flinging it across the court in favor of a new decorative object. The color pops against the monotone gray-white background of the bones and stones. On average, he flashes five objects per display, alternating these with a quick flare of his magenta crest. And here’s the astounding thing—males boost the impact of the colors in their show with a special technique: They build the interior of their avenues with red sticks that create a reddish light within the bower, actually changing the way the female sees. Exposure to this reddish light for a minute or more results in chromatic adaptation in the female’s eyes, altering her perception of the colored object he displays.