I was scrolling through Bluesky and saw a picture of a Satin Bowerbird. A new-to-me bird, I saw that this picture was of a fairly plain looking brown bird with bright violet eyes. Yes. Violet! Of course I had to know why. And because I went down a really weird rabbit hole, now you’re going to, too.

First, the facts. Satin Bowerbirds live in the easter and southeaster coast of Australia. They get the “satin” in their name because of the glossy, soft look of the male’s feathers, which we’ll talk about a bit more in a minute. They’re called “bowerbird” because as part of the mating ritual, males will build small little structures, called bowers. The definition of a bower is: an attractive dwelling, a lady’s apartment in a medieval hall, or a shelter made with vines or boughs.

Now, what do these birds look like? Here’s a male on the left and female on the right. The males have this blue-black shiny, extremely satin-y looking feathers, but only after seven years. For the first seven years of their life, they look very similar to the females with a slightly deeper olive color. And the females are a beautiful mottled green-brown. But both have these violet eyes.

A male Satin Bowerbird perched on a thin branch, showing glossy blue‑black plumage, a pale yellow bill, and a vivid violet eye against a soft green background. Image by Jurgen Otto.

A female Satin Bowerbird standing on a branch, with mottled green‑brown feathers, a slender dark bill, and a bright violet eye, surrounded by blurred foliage. Photo by Cindy Knoke.

Photo by Cindy Knoke

To attract mates, the male Satin Bowerbird will construct a bower out of twigs. These birds really like cream and blue, which might explain the color of their eyes and may be part of the mate selection process. How do we know they like these colors so much? They decorate their bowers with flowers, feathers, berries, and anything else they can find that’s either blue or cream. There are photos of bowers filled with blue bottle caps and straws collected from the neighborhood.

Females will come look at the bowers when the males aren’t there, and if they like it they’ll come back, at which point the male will do his mating dance. Females often go back to their favorite males during a mating season, passing up new bowers and potential mates for ones they already know.

These are such striking birds, and hopefully one day I can see them in person!