Flame Bowerbird

The Flame Bowerbird, Sericulus aureus, is one of the most brilliantly coloured bowerbirds. The male is a medium-sized bird, up to 25 cm long, with flame orange and golden yellow plumage, elongated neck plumes and yellow-tipped black tail. It builds an "avenue-type" bower with two side walls of sticks. The female is an olive brown bird with yellow or golden below.

The Flame Bowerbird is distributed and endemic to rainforests of New Guinea. This species is the first bowerbird described by naturalists. Because of the male's beautifully coloured plumage, it was previously thought to be a bird of paradise. Indeed, the male Flame Bowerbird also has a courtship display along with his bower. He twists his tails and his wings to the side, and then shakes his head quickly.

Subspecies

There are two distinct subspecies, sometimes considered full species:

• Sericulus aureus ardens (Flame Bowerbird), from south-western New Guinea, with orange-faced male
• Sericulus aureus aureus (Masked Bowerbird), the nominate form of north-western New Guinea, with black-faced and black-throated male

The Flame Bowerbird is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

References

• BirdLife International (2004). Sericulus aureus. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 1 November 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern

External links

• BirdLife Species Factsheet
• IUCN Red List