My first bowerbird in PNG was McGregor’s, a more handsome one.  Anne spotted a less elegant species, the Yellow-breasted, a day earlier.  She almost missed the McGregoprs by going on a “cultural tour” for one morning.  Good news was that a McGregor’s showed up again in the afternoon.  These often pigeon-sized birds are noted for the peculiar structures the males make to interest females.  We have seen a few of these bowers and I find them amazing.  

It used to be argued that the bizarre behaviors of various fruit eating birds including the bowerbirds and birds of paradise somehow reflected “fitness” and so females choosing males behaving strangely were rewarded with good genes to fertilize their eggs.  Now some suggest this is bunk.  The ladies simply swoon for males that provide a good show, and the males become useless except as sperm donors, their gaudy colors and outrageous behavior probably providing some humor to the predators that find them easy targets.  It seems that fruit eating makes for an easy life, and it is mostly fruit eating birds that turn the males into freak shows.  

The bowers seem to provide comfort in the form of cover to the females.  It is hard for a male to jump a female in a bower, so she may sit and judge, and fly out if she does not like what she sees.  “Should I stay, or should I go?”