ODIMBAR (One Day I Might Be A Raptor) was not here on 5 April 2017, but had set up his court by 14 April. From behaviour we have considered that he is newly adult-fledged, but he could be an older bird who has shifted his court. It is autumn and the courting that dominates reporting on bowerbirds is not due till spring.

As we begin this blog on 16 April 2017, we already have our hearts in our mouths, concerned that this new family member outside our suburban bedroom window will survive the competition and that his court may thrive. His day is busy: hunting, building, learning, asserting, defending, charming, singing, raucous caucusing and dancing.

And the evidence before us, of daily life, is much more complex than what one usually reads or views on Youtube, of isolated males building bowers in spring to try to entice picky females with whom their relations are fleeting. It's not like that at all here.

Sunday, April 16, 2017

To begin at the beginning

This little film [apologies for scritchy scratchy noises in films, camera on window] covers the mornings of 14 and 15 April 2017. This in our suburban front yard. While most conventional suburban housing in Australia places a desert of grass in front of the house and the main bedroom looking towards the street (with curtains discreetly drawn), we have allowed tall trees and understorey to block the view from the street and sculpted vegetation to allow a garden view from the bedroom. We have coffee and bird view in the mornings. Startled to find, after daylight absence from this view for a week, that a bowerbird has built a bower. On 14 April I managed to catch the dramatic photo at the header, from which the light-hearted name for this new family member: ODIMBAR (one day I might be a raptor).



I first wrote about this here, in another blog which was only recently started and was intended to include everything bloggable—separate blogs causing brain fissures. Well, my brain is fissured, my time is chopped up, by the powerful presence of Odimbar. And if Odimbar survives and thrives, as we hope he will, his story needs to be separate. So we thus must have odimbar.blogspot!

No comments:

Post a Comment