A few weeks ago, I had a Japanese film crew filming for a week at Possum Valley. They were particularly interested in the golden bower bird. They had heard from a friend of a friend of a friend that I had a bower just 100m from the homestead. They found two more bowers on the hill opposite. No mean feat in 200 acres of rainforest. They spent 7 hrs a day sitting in hides at two locations. Oh! the patience required for a few minutes of footage. I learnt about the skullduggery that went on between the birds as an adult male was pinching the trophies of a juvenile male. The same adult male was also apparently giving bower building lessons to a second juvenile male. It is rather surprising that it would help a potential rival, and it was assumed they must be related.
The trophies for the golden bower bird are a particular type of lime-green lichen collected to impress the females. Apparently the young male was livid, but didn’t dare take on the adult. They also found a tooth-billed bower bird’s bower of over-turned leaves. A much more modest affair than the golden bower bird’s amazing pile of sticks. The producer and cameraman from the film crew are back again at Possum Valley, this time for 9 days to take still shots. The weather is on their side again. Sunny and a pleasant 26C.