Golden Bowerbird

The Golden Bowerbird – gets a page all of it’s own

We had heard of the Golden Bowerbirds and were told that they were to be seen in Paluma at the end of November. Then, while of a trip to the tablelands we were walking around the lake at Lake Bariine taking bird photos when a couple came up with a strobe-lighted camera. They advised us to take our photo first as the strobe light would cause the bird to flee. They showed us the shot they obtained which was infinitely superior to ours. The couple then asked whether we’d seen the Golden Bowerbird. We said no. She said “ you go to Mount Hypipamee to the car park and then you walk one hundred metres…’. He interrupts ‘No it was about 250m, the 3rd track along”. She says “you walk up the hill 90 meters and he says “No, remember we had the GPS and it was 200 metres”. We think to ourselves, we are never going to find this bird with such confused instructions and anyways it’s late and we have to get home.We decided to go back the following weekend. We had experience of the ‘Great Bowerbird’ bowers in Townsville but realised when we got halfway up the hill that we had no idea what the Golden Bowerbird bower looked like and we had no phone signal to check the internet. So we found a thing that looked like it was constructed by something but as it didn’t look like what we were used to and we weren’t 200 metres up the hill. The husband suggests that we keep looking. We find a second similar structure but still no sign of a bird. We gave up.

We then walked out to the road and found we had got enough signal to look up the bower. The bower looked surprisingly like the structure we’d seen. So back up the hill we go. This time we hear this awful noise. It turns out these magnificent birds have an awful metallic grating call. I spotted the bird on a branch. It’s not easy to photograph as it blends in well with the sun-dappled leaves.Years later, we finally go looking for the Paluma Golden Bowerbird with similarly vague instructions. This is where we find the top-knot pigeon and the cat bird and finally after seeking further advice and reassuring the man that we have long lenses and would not get close or disturb the bird, we finally found the original Golden Bowerbird.