MacGregor's bowerbird

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.

MacGregor's bowerbird
Male specimen at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Ptilonorhynchidae
Genus: Amblyornis
Species:
A. macgregoriae
Binomial name
Amblyornis macgregoriae
De Vis, 1890
Synonyms

Loria mariae

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]

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Amblyornis macgregoriae". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Frith, Clifford B. (22 June 2020). "The New Guinea bird names Macgregor's Bowerbird and Macgregor's Honeyeater". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 140 (2): 214-216. doi:10.25226/bboc.v140i2.2020.a12.
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