Ptilonorhynchidae: A Bird with Bling

Welcome to my blog. You’ll see that everything is very orderly here, with lots of interesting tidbits from all over the world for you to gaze upon and wonder over. If you like what you see, perhaps I will treat you to a brief display of my dancing abilities, which you will be able to view on YouTube. Forgive me if my clothing is somewhat drab, but I think you’ll agree that my blog more than makes up for it.

My interest in the family Ptilonorhynchidae (Bowerbirds) was renewed recently when I rented and viewed this excellent David Attenborough documentary a few weeks ago. Though occasionally heavy-handed, it was nonetheless life-changing and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

(Should you encounter difficulties in viewing the program in its entirety, please accept an open invitation to view it at my residence when next you find yourself in the neighborhood.) I would be very much obliged if you could see fit to lend your mind to this particular train of thought: I am interested in discussing what, we must admit, is a rather peculiar avian family … and primarily because I feel that I may be starting to develop sincere doubts about the level to which it may actually be possible to legitimately anthropomorphize some of these little critters. I suppose this is really like a philosophic question which has been around since that Thursday long ago when Man naively assumed that he was wholly different from the Animals; He, exempt from mechanically responding to carnal desires because of an Almightie Soule or some similar metaphorical abstruseness.

At any rate, I’m sure you’ll agree that the behaviors of various members of the family Ptilonorhynchidae suggest an unavoidable parallelism betwixt They and Us. It is this very similarity toward which I hope you might be willing to shed some much-needed light; my mind, such as it is, seems very muddled by the confusing notion that I in all my privations may share some rather grave characteristics with a handful of obsessive Australian catbirds.

Satin Bowerbird (P. violaceus) photo from here.