| Page 2 of 2 < |
The Bower of Love
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
The females don't let on which male they're going to choose. First they go off to build their nests. Then each female returns to the mate of her choice. The favorite males might get picked by 20 or more females. Some might not be chosen at all. Better luck next year!
Meanwhile, the females lay their eggs and then raise the chicks on their own.
Borgia and his students have been studying bowerbirds in Australia for 28 years. Every year they discover new surprises about the birds.
Jason Keagy, one of Borgia's students, spent three years giving intelligence tests to male bowerbirds.
"In one test," he says, "I put red objects under see-through containers in front of each bird's bower. Then I watched how quickly the birds figured out how to remove their containers and get rid of the red objects. I wanted to find out if the smartest guys got the most females. And guess what? They did!"
-- Claire Miller
