Males displaying to a female masked bowerbird, Sericulus aureus, illustrated by John Gould (1804–1881)
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Aves
Order:
Passeriformes
Family:
Ptilonorhynchidae
Genus:
Sericulus
Species:
S. aureus
Binomial name
Sericulus aureus
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
Coracias aureaLinnaeus, 1758
Oriolus aureusLinnaeus, 1766
The masked 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 in 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.
The masked bowerbird is evaluated as least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
^BirdLife International (2016). "Sericulus aureus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T103683932A93931853. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T103683932A93931853.en. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
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