Mr. MacGregor's Opus
Or, The Talented Mr. MacGregor, a Bowerbird of Many Skills
Mouse and Minnow is a free weekly newsletter that creatively celebrates the amazing animals who share this world. If you’re already a subscriber, feel free to forward this newsletter to others you think might enjoy it. If this issue has been forwarded to you or you are viewing it online, head to the about page of the Mouse and Minnow website to learn more and subscribe.
Tower and Song
(Short Story)
With a belly full of berries, the young bowerbird flew back towards his patch of the Papua New Guinea forest. He dipped under a familiar thick loop of vine then spread his tail to slow himself, taking perch on a low mossy branch. Peering ahead, he could see movement around the tower of twigs he had so painstakingly built over the months. He leaned forward and tilted his head for a better view. Was a female there to judge his construction skills? He saw a flutter of olive brown wings and hope filled him, until he also saw the hint of orange crest at the back of the bird's head, just like his own. It was a rival male who was busy pulling twigs out HIS bower. Sabotage!
The bowerbird called out his displeasure by mimicking the screech of a black-winged kite before launching himself off the branch. The intruder flew off in a hurry, leaving the bowerbird to survey the damage.
He landed within the mossy ringed platform he had built to serve as his courtyard. His tower rose up from the center of the platform, built around a tall, straight sapling he had carefully selected. The intruder had only managed to pull a few twigs from the top and one side, and disturbed a few decorations. The bowerbird set to work, hopping down to the forest floor to retrieve the dropped sticks one by one, carefully poking and wiggling each back into place until the holes in his masterwork had been filled. Then he gently plucked each of his decorations up from the tendrils of moss; baubles of sappy plant bits and caterpillar poop that he delicately hung over the ends of some of the twigs.
The bowerbird was so engrossed in his work that he didn't hear the flutter of wings above him. It was only when he hopped back to the edge of the courtyard to check his progress that he caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. He was about to shriek again when he realized that it wasn't another rival, this time it really was a female.
Full of excitement, the bowerbird hopped frantically around the mossy ring until the tower stood between him and his potential mate. Only once he was fully hidden from her view did the female hop down to the courtyard. So far, so good. The tower was solid enough to make her feel safe in his presence, shielded from his advances until she was ready to make her decision. He gave her a moment to admire his architecture and his eye for detail, then he tossed his head back to show her that he had an ear for detail as well.
First he mimicked a flurry of fast calls from the bee-eater, then the high dots and dashes of the parrotfinch. The hoots of a boobook were sure to impress, and they dovetailed nicely with sixteen pulses from the cuckoo-dove. A little squeaky chatter of lorikeets, the strange call of the sicklebill, and the whistles of a king parrot seemed like they would do nicely.
His song done, he was ready to make his move. He raised the blazing orange crest on the back of his neck and started to hop around the tower towards her. His hope was that after a few turns around the circle of him hopping towards her and her hopping away, she would stop and they would be together. But instead of staying in the circle with him, the female suddenly flew away.
What had he done wrong? Was there more damage to the bower than he realized? He hopped around to the side where the female had been and started to scrutinize it more closely. The bowerbird wiggled a twig here and there, but he couldn't find a gap where she would have been able to see through. Still, something about him had failed to impress.
He was about to head out to search for more caterpillar poop when he heard something crashing towards him through the brush. He flew straight up and sheltered on a high branch just as a short, stocky animal burst into the small clearing on four thin legs. She snorted and huffed at his moss, knocking chunks of it away. The bowerbird had never seen a pig before. She reared up on her hind legs and smashed her hooves down into his courtyard, swinging her snout into his tower as she smelled around for who-knew-what and did more damage in seconds than his rival could have done in hours. The bowerbird used his kite-shriek, but the pig ignored him. Then he heard another new sound coming from the same direction the pig had come. The pig squealed loudly and ran on as another bark came through the trees.
The bowerbird looked down and cocked his head at his smashed masterpiece. But as he looked at the twigs and moss strewn about, he absentmindedly made a new noise deep in his throat. A snorting, snuffling sort of noise. Then a soft squeal. He lifted his head and tried it again, louder. This time, the barking seemed to answer his squeal and draw closer. He tried his own bark. It sounded too much like a shrike, but he could work on it.
Then the dog appeared in the clearing, and was followed by two of the strangest animals the bowerbird had ever seen. Humans were like giant, naked, gangly tree kangaroos stuck on the ground. Two of them were following the dog, and murmuring to each other.
As the trio disappeared the way the pig had gone, the young bowerbird made a new kind of murmuring, low in his throat. A conversation he didn't understand, about a pig on the run and a feast postponed. Without another look at his damaged bower, he flew off to follow these new sounds of the forest. The twigs would be there when he got back, and if they weren't he could always find more.
Right now, he had work to do.
~ Marilyn Anne Campbell
This story was inspired by a segment in the Netflix special "Dancing With The Birds." I've known for a long time that bowerbirds exist, yet I somehow missed that there were many different kinds of bowerbirds, and many different kinds of bowers. I thought the males all built little structures on the ground to dance around or behind, which they decorated with berries and bottle caps and other bright objects. So I was astonished to learn about the multi-talented MacGregor's bowerbirds (amblyornis macgregoriae), who not only build three-foot-tall towers to dance around, but also bring astonishing mimicry to the table. If you get Netflix I highly recommend the whole show, but if not don’t worry; part of the McGregor’s bowerbird segment is also available online.
Have a listen for yourself:
“Tower and Song” is the story of a slightly younger bowerbird than the one featured in the show. He’s got a handle on the bower part, but hasn’t yet discovered the wide world of sounds around him. A rival picking the bower apart and a pig running around the forest are also inspired by the “Dancing With The Birds” segment, though the pig isn’t nearly as much of a problem for a Netflix star.
The notion that bowers are to used make females feel safer came from a PBS article that included that theory from bowerbird researcher Gerald Borgia (article is in the links section below). The choices for which birds to have our hero mimic came from consulting birding lists uploaded to the citizen science database, eBird. Still, I assume I’ve made some silly mistakes, as one is bound to do when writing about an animal you’ve never met in a place you’ve never been. Send an email or drop corrections in the comments if you have them!
Join the Conversation
Do you have a favourite bowerbird, or a story about a mimic? Have you seen “Dancing With The Birds?” Are you as impressed by these birds as Marilyn is? Share your thoughts:
You can comment or click the heart on any issue of Mouse and Minnow on the website archive, or hit the reply button in your email provider to send us your thoughts directly.
Thanks for reading,
Marilyn & Steve
About & Subscribe
Mouse and Minnow is a free newsletter celebrating animals, sent out most Sundays. It is co-created by partners Steve Alguire (illustration) and Marilyn Anne Campbell (writing). Learn more about the newsletter or use the subscribe button below to receive original art and writing about the wonderful creatures of this world right in your inbox.
(Please note: This newsletter is hosted by Substack.com. Before subscribing, you should be sure that you consent to Substack’s privacy policy, terms of use and especially the company’s information collection notice.)
Links
Looking for a little more on MacGregor’s bowerbirds? Check out:
A little behind-the-scenes read about filming “Dancing With The Birds” on BirdGuide.com
The article “Bower Bird Blues: Amorous Architecture” from PBS (which provided the idea for the story that bowers make females feel safer)
And a great summary of many types of bowerbirds “Bowerbirds: Meet the Bird World’s Kleptomaniac Love Architects” by Justine E. Hausheer on the Cool Green Science blog.
© All images and text are copyright the respective author. You are encouraged to share this newsletter with others by forwarding it or sharing the link to the online archive, but all other uses, including reposting individual or complete content, are not permitted without specific consent.