Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
breath away. The robin-sized male sports a brilliant bonnet of yellow feathers, a look emu-
lated by some New Guinea tribal chieftains who fashion the feathers into headdresses. When
the yellow feathers are erected during its mating dance, the bowerbird is one of the most com-
pelling sights in nature.
The oblivious male began emitting a rasping growl that sounded a bit like gravel being
poured out of a dump truck. This vocalization helped Bruce and his team find many other
bowers. The dancers themselves could be easily spotted circling around their one-meter-tall
fabrications. In the tranquility of the Fojas, the bowerbirds proved anything but shy.
A day later, it was the turn of another quest species to make its grand entrance. A pair of
Berlepsch's six-wired birds of paradise appeared at camp, cavorting in from the forest edge.
Equipped with shiny black-and-white plumage, the male began to shake his feathers, includ-
ing the six ornate wirelike feathers emanating from his head, the basis for the name of the
species. He then began to flick his wings, flash his white flank plumes, and utter sweet call
notes while closely circling the female. The display lasted for more than five minutes.
The scientists were awestruck. No one had witnessed the courtship dance of this species
before. The six-wired's place of residence was unknown before this expedition; it was a spe-
cies collected before 1897 from an uncertain locale and not by a naturalist. No one had even
managed a good look at the adult male—Jared Diamond had caught only a glimpse of this
“lost” bird, a female, in his earlier expedition. It had been listed as a subspecies of anoth-
er six-wired for nearly a century, but Bruce instantly recognized it as a potentially distinct
species because of its unique vocalizations and slightly varied plumage and eye color. Given
so many isolated ranges on this island corrugated with mountain chains, it's no wonder that
New Guinea is home to thirty-seven species of birds of paradise. Bruce and his team worked
straight through the daily downpours. Over the next two days the marsh in the bog flooded,
turning the helicopter landing site into a lake and forcing him to move his tent and much of
the campsite to higher ground. On the plus side, the mystery bird with the chicken wattles,
the new honeyeater, was everywhere around the newly flooded bog. Oddly, it made no vo-
calization, an unusual trait for a bird.
There was another striking aspect of the birds up here. Previously, Bruce had logged many
hours of observation concealed in blinds on Mount Missim, about 750 kilometers away in
PNG, recording the breeding and feeding behavior of four local species, both rare and com-
mon, of secretive birds of paradise. But in the upper Fojas, a bird blind was unnecessary. The
male Berlepsch's six-wired bird of paradise ignored the visitors and continued to dance vig-
orously. The golden-fronted bowerbird males could be observed constructing their bowers up
and down the ridgelines, and by the end of week one, the wattled smoky honeyeater had be-
come a camp bird. Nearby, the black sicklebill continued flirting with the females from atop
a dead stub on a forest ridge.
