Macgregor’s bowerbirds communicate through visual displays and cues in mating through courtship and the constructing of a bower by the males. They also use vocalizations in courtship signaling to the females. Males use body language through the counter movements around the central bower to communicate with the female on the other side.
Communication Channels: visual ; acoustic
Other Communication Modes: mimicry ; duets
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
The tropical montane climate of the forests Macgregor’s bowerbirds inhabit have effectively confined horticulture by the indigenous people in that area through its high altitudes and rich terrain. There are also sacred sites set aside by the indigenous people that prohibit the killing of birds and mammals. Macgregor’s bowerbirds populations are currently considered least concern by the IUCN but is expected to decrease with the loss and degradation of their habitat.
The Macgregor’s bowerbird is not known to have any negative effects on humans.
Macgregor’s bowerbirds rarely come in contact with humans except for when they land in the sacred sites and gardens of the indigenous people. Bowerbirds in general provide great research for sexual selection.
Positive Impacts: research and education
Macgregor’s bowerbirds are strictly frugivores, therefore are thought to have impacts on the size and structure of fruit growing in their range. The plants have shown an adaptation to Macgregor’s bowerbird feeding habits to enhance certain seed dispersal patterns.
Ecosystem Impact: disperses seeds
Macgregor’s bowerbirds are frugivorous. The males gather fruit for bower decoration, which is a separate behavior than food storing. 95% of the Macgregor’s bowerbird diet consists of medium to large drupes and arillate fruit. Arthropods were found to make up the rest of the diet. The Macgregor bowerbird forages alone or in small groups. Females, juveniles and males all forage in the same areas revealing that the males do not defend any food sources. The males also participate in fruit caching which only takes place during the breeding season. The males who had the most elaborate and complete bowers were found to have the most cache sites.
Plant Foods: fruit
Foraging Behavior: stores or caches food
Primary Diet: herbivore (Frugivore )
Macgregor’s bowerbirds (Amblyornis macgregoriae) are widespread in eastern and central Papua, New Guinea. They range from the eastern Owen Stanley Range to the Adelbert Range in Papua, New Guinea.
Biogeographic Regions: australian (Native )
Other Geographic Terms: island endemic
Macgregor’s bowerbird primarily spend most of their lives regularly spaced within available habitat in isolated ranges that occur at high elevations (1,200 and 1,400 m) in mountain ranges across central and eastern New Guinea. They live in mixed mid-montane and Nothofagus forests in higher altitudes, along ridges.
Range elevation: 1,200 to 1,400 m.
Habitat Regions: tropical ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: forest ; rainforest ; mountains
Aquatic Biomes: coastal
Little is known about the Macgregor's bowerbird's life span.
Macgregor’s bowerbirds are small and stocky with a stout and dark bill. Adult females grow to be about 26 cm and are generally dark brownish with olive coloring and paler faces and necks. Adult males have glossy orange color tipping its feathers that are dark green, black, and brown in coloring. The male has a bright orange head plume, causing them to stand out more so than the females.
Average length: 26 cm.
Sexual Dimorphism: male larger; sexes colored or patterned differently; male more colorful
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Macgregor’s bowerbirds participate in lek displays and it is thought that this behavior may reduce predation. The bower and the courtship displays distract predators away from nearby nests, but there is no evidence of predation on males or females during these displays. These bowers and nests are made on the ground along ridges where there are not very many predators. Specific predators are unknown to Macgregor’s bowerbirds.
Anti-predator Adaptations: aposematic ; cryptic
Bowers are essential to males in mating interactions with females. Male Macgregor’s bowerbirds will not attract a mate without an elaborate and complete bower. The more time and effort the male spends on the bower potentially increases the reproductive success of the male. Macgregor’s bowerbirds are polygamous. The female inspects the male’s bower and if she likes it, she expresses female-choice and mates with the male. After mating, the female leaves the bower and builds her own nest out of plant material and lays one or two eggs. The male continues to work on his bower and attempts to attract as many females as he can.
Mating System: polygynandrous (promiscuous)
Male Macgregor's bowerbirds build structures out of sticks called a bower. The female approaches this bower and chooses whether or not she wants to mate with the male who built it. As the female inspects the bower, the male dances and shows off his bright colors. The more intricate bower and the longest dancing male is usually the female's choice, because it represents the fitness of the male. When the female chooses a male, she allows him to copulate. Once copulation has finished, she builds her own nest and parents the offspring alone. The male continues to work on his bower and mate with other females.
Breeding interval: The frequency of mating is unknown.
Breeding season: Macgregor's bowerbirds breed between September and February.
Average eggs per season: 1 to 2.
Range time to hatching: 19 to 24 days.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; year-round breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; oviparous
After mating, the female builds her own nest close to the male's bower/territory. The female has access to provisions (fruit) on male's territory. Females raise eggs and young on her own.
Parental Investment: female parental care ; pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-independence (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female)
MacGregor's bowerbird (Amblyornis macgregoriae) is a medium-sized, up to 26 cm long, olive brown bowerbird of New Guinea's mountain forests, roughly the size and shape of an American Robin or a Eurasian Blackbird. The male is adorned with an erectile orange yellow crest, that is partly hidden until shown in courtship display. The unadorned female is similar to the male, but without the crest. Superb mimics, they are known for imitating other birds, pigs, rushing water, and even human speech.
The polygamous male builds a tower-like "maypole-type" bower, an elaborate courtship structure, with a central pole of twigs surrounded by a dish of moss with raised walls approximately 1 meter in diameter. He decorates the twigs of the maypole with flowers, fruits, insects and other objects. The diet consists mainly of fruits and insects.
When a female comes in proximity to the bower, the male struts and calls, and opens his crest to display its full color. Hiding the crest except during sexual display is thought to minimize his vulnerability to predators.
Widespread and common throughout its range, MacGregor's bowerbird is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
MacGregor's bowerbird was named in dedication to ‘Lady Macgregor’, wife of Sir William McGregor, Administrator of British New Guinea during 1888–98. Sir William's surname was originally, and thus formally, McGregor but he adopted the spelling MacGregor while in New Guinea as his personal preference.[2]
MacGregor's bowerbird (Amblyornis macgregoriae) is a medium-sized, up to 26 cm long, olive brown bowerbird of New Guinea's mountain forests, roughly the size and shape of an American Robin or a Eurasian Blackbird. The male is adorned with an erectile orange yellow crest, that is partly hidden until shown in courtship display. The unadorned female is similar to the male, but without the crest. Superb mimics, they are known for imitating other birds, pigs, rushing water, and even human speech.
The polygamous male builds a tower-like "maypole-type" bower, an elaborate courtship structure, with a central pole of twigs surrounded by a dish of moss with raised walls approximately 1 meter in diameter. He decorates the twigs of the maypole with flowers, fruits, insects and other objects. The diet consists mainly of fruits and insects.
When a female comes in proximity to the bower, the male struts and calls, and opens his crest to display its full color. Hiding the crest except during sexual display is thought to minimize his vulnerability to predators.
Widespread and common throughout its range, MacGregor's bowerbird is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
MacGregor's bowerbird was named in dedication to ‘Lady Macgregor’, wife of Sir William McGregor, Administrator of British New Guinea during 1888–98. Sir William's surname was originally, and thus formally, McGregor but he adopted the spelling MacGregor while in New Guinea as his personal preference.
