Golden Bowerbird

The Golden Bowerbird is the smallest member of the bowerbird family and is found nowhere in the world outside a restricted patch of upland rainforest in the Wet Tropics of far north Queensland. Adult males show a striking combination of olive-brown upperparts and bright golden-yellow underparts, crown, and tail, while females are much plainer, olive-grey above with paler grey underparts, offering good camouflage in the misty mountain forest.

Rather than building the avenue-style bowers typical of many relatives, the male constructs an extraordinary maypole bower: two tower-like stick structures built around slender saplings, sometimes joined by a horizontal stick perch, that can reach well over two meters tall, an astonishing scale relative to the bird's small size and one of the most impressive construction feats in the bird world.

Key field marks

• Small size, the smallest bowerbird species
• Male: olive-brown upperparts with bright golden-yellow underparts, crown, and tail
• Female: plain olive-grey above, paler grey below
• Restricted to cool, misty upland rainforest in a small part of northeastern Queensland

Similar species

• No other bowerbird occurs within its restricted upland range in the Wet Tropics, making location and the male's gold-and-olive pattern reliable identification clues.
• Tooth-billed Bowerbird, found in the same region, is plain olive-brown all over without any golden-yellow coloring and builds a very different court of upturned leaves rather than a tower bower.

Habitat

Restricted to cool, high-altitude tropical rainforest, generally above about 900 meters elevation.

Range

Endemic to a small area of the Wet Tropics of far north Queensland, Australia, including the Atherton Tablelands region, and found nowhere else in the world.

Migration

Sedentary, remaining within its restricted upland rainforest habitat year-round.

Behavior

Males build and maintain an elaborate maypole-style bower of two stick towers built up around saplings, sometimes exceeding two meters in height, and display from a connecting perch to attract females; considered one of the most extreme examples of bower construction relative to body size in any bird.

Voice

A distinctive, mechanical-sounding, buzzing or rattling call, along with softer chattering notes.

Feeding

Feeds on fruit, insects, and flowers foraged in the rainforest canopy and understorey.

Nesting

The female builds a simple cup nest of moss and plant material in a tree cavity or dense vegetation, separate from the male's display bower; lays 1-2 white eggs.