This week two new Picture books about Bowerbirds have appeared in our shops. They are so very different from one another and at first glance it seems perhaps Catherine Rayner has "made a mistake" with her little brown bird who looks so different from the glorious and iconic blue specimen depicted by Aura Parker.
Actually both of these illustrators are "right". I found these images of the Great Bowerbird and he is brown not blue and so looks very different from the Satin Bowerbird. The Great Bowerbird also collects things to fill his bower in order to lure a mate. Take a look here to see photos of both birds and their bowers. The very rare Regent Bowerbird is yellow and black! And the juvenile Satin Bowerbird is also brown.
Bowerbirds are native to Australia and Papua New Guinea, with 10 species in PNG and eight in Australia. Two species are common to both countries. The species found in Australia are:
- Spotted Bowerbird (Chlamydera maculata)
- Regent Bowerbird (Sericulus chrysocephalus)
- Satin Bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus)
- Great Bowerbird (Chlamydera nuchalis)
- Green Catbird (Ailuroedus crassirostris)
- Western Bowerbird (Chlamydera guttata)
- Golden Bowerbird (Prionodura newtoniana)
- Fawn-breasted Bowerbird (Chlamydera cerviniventris)
- Tooth-billed Bowerbird (Scenopoeetes dentirostris)
- Black-eared Catbird (Ailuroedus melanotis)
Bowerbird facts:
- Satin Bowerbirds are renowned for decorating their bowers with all manner of blue objects collected from the vicinity of the bower and sometimes from farther afield. These odds and ends may comprise feathers from parrots, flowers, seed pods and fruits, butterfly wings and artificial items such as ball-point pens, matchboxes, string, marbles and pieces of glass.
- To attract his mate, the male bowerbird gathers sticks and assorted trinkets, with which he plies his skill as an architect, builder and decorator. After carefully constructing a twig avenue on the forest floor; he chooses decorations, arranging them around the sunny northern entrance. He favours blue, but may use yellowish-green ornaments, like the female’s plumage. If anything outside his colour scheme (such as a white flower) falls onto the bower, he’ll quickly remove it.
- Bowers, which are located on the ground, are either avenues (in which mating takes place) or maypoles (where a series of sticks are woven around a central pole). Avenue bowers can be up to two metres long.
- Males steal from each other’s bowers with the aim of displaying the best-looking structure to visiting females. Female birds visit several bowers in the process of selecting a mate. To make selection easier, several bowers will be located close together.
- Female satin bowerbirds and young males have olive-green tones and brown wings. Young males will start to acquire their blue adult plumage at age five. Adult males will be fully attired at age seven.
Further Reading:
Bush Heritage Australia
Birds in Backyards
Backyard Buddies
ABC Radio Canberra: Bowerbirds building booty bases in backyards treat neighbours to beautiful courtship ritual
Australian Museum
Bowerbird Blues begins with glorious end papers which are different front and back. In the story we meet a Satin Bowerbird.
"I am a collector. Always looking, finding and keeping! Swooping, snatching, scouring, scavenging. Oh how I love BLUE! A skerrick. A scrap A piece of blue. If only I could find the perfect hue."
Take some time to think about the perfect construction of this text. The alliteration and the rich word choices such as skerrick and hue.
There is blue all around this bird - blue in the sky, blue in the water but those shades of blue are impossible to collect. After diving in the ocean, which is littered with dreadful plastic fragments, the bird is washed onto the sand surrounded by blue litter - bread tags, buttons, plastic spoons, straws, pegs and plastic topped pins. The Satin Bowerbird gathers all these things and he takes them back to his bower which is already full of other human detritus - bottle caps, tooth brushes, and those dangerous plastic rings from milk bottles. Take a look at this photo on the National Geographic site - warning image may distress younger children.
The bowerbird, in this story by Aura Parker, is searching for something special and wonderful. It wasn't the perfect blue object it was a mate and at the end of the book she arrives.
"Smiling, soaring. Floating, feeling! Sharing, nesting. Cuddling, snuggling. Loving, knowing how much I love you."
So this new Australian title has an environmental message linked with our curiosity about the strange behaviour of this special Australian bird. I especially love the colour palette used by Aura Parker. Aura posted this video on her facebook page. I am going to make a bold prediction and say we are sure to see this book featured on our Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) notables list for the 2024 book of the year award (Picture Book or Early Childhood).
Julia Donaldson discovered our Australian Bowerbird when she watched a documentary by David Attenborough. I am not sure if this is the video she saw - it features a Satin Bowerbird (blue as expected) and a juvenile male (brown feathers) and shows how the bower is constructed and the collection of blue objects. And in this video David Attenborough shares the work of a Bowerbird found in PNG. He is using pink flowers not the blue you might have expected. Perhaps Catherine Rayner used these two videos as inspiration for her art in The Bowerbird or perhaps she wanted to use a juvenile bowerbird to contrast with the sneaky adult male who tricks little Bert.
As you would expect Julia Donaldson has created a wonderful text for her book. Yes it is in rhyme but she is a master of that form.
"He places a purple flower outside, then sat and waited for his bride."
"A rose hip, a rusty zip, a pencil and a paperclip, and then the shell, the silver bell, the wrapper from the caramel, plus the pretty purple flower."
Her story is a cumulative rhyme. Bert gathers more and more things for his bower - a fir cone, a stripy stone, a marble and a mobile phone! But nothing satisfies Nanette. Then along comes a trickster - a bird called Claude. He looks like a large adult male satin bowerbird and he tells Bert, Nanette will love him if he can gather a golden ring. While Bert is off looking for this illusive treasure, Claude robs the bower. Poor bedraggled Bert arrives home to discover all of his carefully collected treasures are gone.
Have you guessed the happy ending. Bert did not need all of those objects. Nanette was not worthy of his love. Just as he is about to give up another sweet bird arrives.
"The sweetest bird he'd ever seen. She bowed her head and said, 'I'm Jean.' She looked Bert over once or twice and added 'You look very nice, and what a pretty purple flower!' and then she came inside his bower."
See inside The Bowerbird here. Fans of Julia Donaldson and Catherine Rayner will adore this new book and it is one you will want to add to your school or preschool library. In fact you must add both of these books - the new Australian one by Aura Parker too. With a group of older students it would be terrific to compare these texts - plot similarities and differences; illustrations; book design (cover, title, endpapers, and even the dedications); colour choices; and deeper themes of environment, betrayal, and the search for true love!
Another book that is about to be released is this fable by Australian author Sophie Masson. I have not had the opportunity to see this book but from my investigations it is not specifically about the Satin Bowerbird but uses this as a metaphor for the young boy who collects blue objects. This looks like an interesting book to explore with a group of older students.
Here is the blurb: Every morning early, when no-one’s about, Satin slips out of the forest and walks along the sleepy sunrise streets, looking for blue… He’s collected all kinds of blues, from all kinds of places. He’s making something beautiful, with all those blues. But something’s missing, and he doesn’t know what it is. And then, one day, he comes to a street he’s never been in before. And what he finds there will change his lonely life forever. And here is a review.
Here is one more book featuring the Bowerbird:
