This picture shows a collection of beetle shields and blue berries at the entrance of the bower of a Vogelkop Bowerbird.
The Vogelkop Bowerbird builds one of the most impressive constructions of his genus. Every single bower seems to have his own characteristic decorations: some males seem to be fond of beetle wings and mushrooms, others prefer blue and black berries or decorate their bower with red rhododendron flowers. Some of the bowerbirds have very vivid colours to attract the females, but it seems that the more spectacular the bower gets, the duller the male looks. The Vogelkop Bowerbird is surely one of the duller looking bowerbirds, but who would need a flashy costume to attract the females with such a bower? It takes the males often several years to reach their optimal building capacities. We saw a lot of smaller and collapsed bowers of practising younger males. Apart from their exceptional building capacities, the males are amazing song performers and are able to imitate about every sound they've ever heard in the forest. One of the birds I saw brilliantly imitated the sound of a compact camera when it opens (pling), and once I thought there was a papuan guy coming up the hill when I a heard a dog barking. A little later I realized it was a bowerbird perfectly imitating a barking dog...
Definitely one of the most fascinating birds I've ever seen in the wild!