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23

Western Bowerbird (Chlamydera guttata) Alternate name(s): "Guttated Bowerbird" Size: 25-29 cm Weight: 120-150 g

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Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Western Bowerbirds are small bowerbirds. They have a cryptic plumage. They have a dark-brown chest, sides and flanks scalloped with lighter-brown chevrons, and a fawn to buff belly and vent. The head is brown, streaked with near-black grey-brown. From the nape of the neck down, except for a pink nuchal crest, the rest of the back is near-black dark-brown, spotted copiously with brown specks. The wing and tail feathers all have brown ends. The only difference between the two sexes is that male Western Bowerbirds have larger (and broader) nuchal crests than females. Males, when excited, can fan out the crest, which will then not be erected upwards, but fan out sideways, rendering a pink and purple fringe visible behind its eyes, as seen from the front. The eyes have brown irises. The strong bill is dark-grey; the legs and feet are also dark-grey. Juveniles do not have a crest yet. Twitcher's tip Compared with Spotted Bowerbirds, they have richer colours.

Taxonomy, classification See Western Bowerbird at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Western Bowerbird is available HERE . NB: Reports on ebird of birds submitted by birdwatchers from the Australian Outback tend to be clustered along roads and public areas such as camp grounds; in such cases their distribution is not a good representation of the overall distribution of the species. There are two races of Western Bowerbirds, both of which are endemic to Australia. Nominate race "guttata" occurs in the southern NT (including Alice Springs), except the south-eastern corner of the state, from just North of the tropic of Capricorn to just south of the border with SA and with a small extension into central eastern WA. They also occupy large parts of the interior of WA, including basically the catchments of the Fitzroy, Yannarie and Gascoyne Rivers and extending further South, to about Wanjarri NP, WA. South of Carnarvon, WA, and Kennedy NP they are found only inland, to the East of the geographic longitude of Murchison, WA. Race "carteri" is only found on the North West Cape in WA. Western Bowerbirds can be found in arid, open woodland.

Sightings Click here for sighting information Race "guttata" M. Mearns reports seeing Western Bowerbirds, race "guttata", at Gosses Bluff, Tnorala Conservation Reserve, NT, in July 2005. M. and J. Leculier report seeing Western Bowerbirds, race "guttata", in the township of Alice Springs, NT, in July 2006. At the time there were two birds with bowers very close to each other. F. Bongers reports spotting a Western Bowerbird, race "guttata", in its bower, also in the township of Alice Springs, in October 2011. J. Greaves reports finding Western Bowerbirds, race "guttata", at Boolardy Station, Murchison, WA, in August 2016. B. Hensen found Western Bowerbirds, race "guttata", at the Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, in July 2018. In October 2022, M. Eaton also spotted Western Bowerbirds, race "guttata", at the Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT. At the time, they were also found at Jessie Gap, Alice Springs, NT.

Photos

Race "guttata"

ADULT

MALE

Close-up frontal portrait of an adult male Western Bowerbird (photo courtesy of J. Greaves)
[Boolardy Station, Murchison, WA, August 2016]

Close-up frontal view of a male Western Bowerbird (photo courtesy of F. Bongers)
[Alice Springs, NT, October 2011]

Frontal view of a male Western Bowerbird (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, July 2018]

Close-up frontal view of a male Western Bowerbird with its head turned
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Close-up near-lateral view of a male Western Bowerbird (photo courtesy of J. Greaves)
[Boolardy Station, Murchison, WA, August 2016]

Close-up view of a male Western Bowerbird with its head turned - note the purple lining of the pink nuchal crest - something one will only see when getting very close; Spotted Bowerbirds have the same purple lining of their crests
(photo courtesy of F. Bongers)
[Alice Springs, NT, October 2011]

Close-up near-lateral portrait of a male Western Bowerbird (photo courtesy of J. Greaves)
[Boolardy Station, Murchison, WA, August 2016]

Lateral view of a male Western Bowerbird (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, July 2018]

Close-up near-dorsal view of a male Western Bowerbird (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Dorsal view of a male Western Bowerbird, with a clear view of its large nuchal crest (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, July 2018]

FEMALE

Close-up near-lateral view of a female Western Bowerbird (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Close-up lateral view of a female Western Bowerbird (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Close-up lateral view of a female Western Bowerbird (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Lateral view of a female Western Bowerbird; this bird was seen near a bower, with a confirmed male (photos shown above) sitting in a nearby shrub (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, July 2018]

Near-dorsal view of a female Western Bowerbird (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Close-up near-dorsal view of a female Western Bowerbird (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Sex unknown

Near-frontal/ventral view of a Western Bowerbird (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Gosses Bluff, Tnorala Conservation Reserve, NT, July 2005]

Near-lateral view of a Western Bowerbird on the ground, with a clear view of its small nuchal crest
(photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Gosses Bluff, Tnorala Conservation Reserve, NT, July 2005]

Close-up lateral view of a Western Bowerbird looking at the observer (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Close-up lateral view of a Western Bowerbird (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Lateral view of a Western Bowerbird, with a clear view of its small nuchal crest (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Gosses Bluff, Tnorala Conservation Reserve, NT, July 2005]

Breeding information

Twitcher's tip

A bower is NOT a nest - it is a male bird's courting alley. Nests, built by female birds, are in fact kept well away from bowers.

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Territorial

Mobility: Sedentary/roaming

Elementary unit: Solitary

Male birds are sedentary, females are roaming.

Bowers

Male Western Bowerbirds try to attract as many females to their territory, and thus their bower, as they can. The photos below show that Western Bowerbirds appear to prefer having their bowers in more open surroundings than their eastern cousins, the Spotted Bowerbirds, whose bowers are usually found under trees with low branches, such as e.g. Wilga shrubs.

Frontal view of a bower with trinkets (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Jessie Gap, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Frontal view of a male Western Bowerbird at its bower (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Frontal view of a male Western Bowerbird inspecting his creation (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Close-up near-frontal view of a male Western Bowerbird rearranging trinkets around its bower
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Close-up lateral view of a Western Bowerbird at its bower; as long as the bird looks towards the observer, one cannot determine the sex (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Close-up lateral view of a Western Bowerbird at its bower; only when the head is turned, one can see the male's large pink nuchal crest (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Frontal view of a bower with trinkets (photo courtesy of F. Bongers)
[Alice Springs, NT, October 2011]

Lateral view of a bower with trinkets (photo courtesy of F. Bongers)

Bower with trinkets (photo courtesy of M. and J. Leculier)
[Alice Springs, NT, July 2006]

Here a different bower, with its owner seen in the background (photo courtesy of M. and J. Leculier)
[Alice Springs, NT, July 2006]

Food, Diet

Frontal view of a Western Bowerbird checking out the fruit of a shrub (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Lateral view of a Western Bowerbird taking a fruit (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Lateral view of a Western Bowerbird taking parts of a flower (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Botanical Gardens, Alice Springs, NT, October 2022]

Call(s)/Song

For this species we have recorded the following call(s)/song. The interpretation of their meaning is our own; comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

westbow_jg_20160806_1.m4a	(Ctl WA)	?	© JG
westbow_jg_20160806_2.m4a	(Ctl WA)	?	© JG
westbow_me_20221018_2.mp3	(Ctl NT)	?	© ME
westbow_me_20221018.mp3	(Ctl NT)	?	© ME

More Western Bowerbird sound recordings are available at xeno-canto.org .

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

Would you like to contribute photos or sound recordings to this site? If interested, please CLICK HERE. Credits to contributors are given HERE.

Disclaimer: Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee that the information presented on these pages is always correct or up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no responsibility for the contents of external pages. All images on this site are protected by copyright & used by permission of the respective owners. If you wish to reproduce them or any of the material presented on this web site, please contact us: We hereby acknowledge the original custodians of the land which is described on these pages, including the Gomeroi/Gamilaraay people of the North-west Slopes and Plains of NSW, and the traditional owners of other lands and nations within this country. We acknowledge elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.          Last updated: Wed, 16 November 2022, 20:57 +00:00