He strives to impress his guest with a collection of blue gifts.

January 24, 2015 3:42 PM

THE EROTIC AND SULTRY DANCE OF THE ADULT BOWERBIRD. (slyt)
posted by theodolite (30 comments total)

Oh god, I love Bowerbirds. Amazing.
posted by futz at 3:45 PM on January 24, 2015

Oh right. Dancing AND blue gifts. I have to update my style.
posted by happyroach at 3:52 PM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

This is already my style, and equally without success.
Although, admittedly, I'm probably more a supreme bird of paradise when it comes to my mating dance.
posted by bigendian at 3:56 PM on January 24, 2015 [4 favorites]

protip: do not try to hump after only two purple gifts
posted by Meatbomb at 4:08 PM on January 24, 2015 [6 favorites]

Poor bird. That 'don't step on your mate's head' thing gets me every time.
posted by Hither at 4:14 PM on January 24, 2015 [7 favorites]

Well, watch the whole video. SPOILER: The protip is hold the keys to your BMW in your mouth and wave them around for a few seconds longer. And then don't stamp on her fucking head before you try to mount her.
posted by Elmore at 4:15 PM on January 24, 2015 [6 favorites]

I love these kinds of things.

Sometimes, I feel like: if EVERYONE accepted that sometimes trying to woo someone just inherently makes you do things that are a little silly, and you just sort of embrace that silly, it'd make everyone relax a lot more. I think on a BUFFY episode they put it, "love makes you do the wacky."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:20 PM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

Yeah, it pretty much squirrels my evening if I step on my wife's head...
posted by jim in austin at 4:21 PM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

Of course, if the pair hit it off, there's the beautiful bowerbird wedding ceremony (rarely seen on TV), with its quaint tradition of "something blue, something blue, something blue, something blue."
posted by uosuaq at 4:21 PM on January 24, 2015 [23 favorites]

I had no idea bowerbirds came in different colors! I had only ever seen the satin bowerbird, the males of which are a lustrous black and decorate in blue.
posted by winna at 4:24 PM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

Note that the male bowerbird in the video I linked does not step on his lady's head and hence baby bowerbirds may result.
posted by winna at 4:25 PM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

Was the incompetent camera operator another, dumber kind of bird?
posted by Sys Rq at 4:29 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

Beautiful and amusing - thank you! - but my heart will always belong to the albatross for this sort of thing.
posted by mykescipark at 4:38 PM on January 24, 2015 [18 favorites]

more albatross macking. This is the best fpp.
posted by yaymukund at 5:24 PM on January 24, 2015 [6 favorites]

THE EROTIC AND SULTRY DANCE OF THE ADULT BOWERBIRD

As opposed to the juvenile male bowerbird, which punches the female in the wing and then quickly flies away before he catches cooties.
posted by 445supermag at 5:59 PM on January 24, 2015 [4 favorites]

Apparently, having her head stamped on just before the mating broke her suitor's spell.

Chicks, man.
posted by darkstar at 6:19 PM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

http://youtubedoubler.com/ephD

turn down sound on bird video, then maximize the screen
posted by turntraitor at 6:28 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

I have been boinging up and down while undulating my left arm at random with a blue hairtie in my mouth and my head cocked over my left shoulder and I feel like I'm getting something wrong. I feel neither sultry nor erotic and my mate seems more embarrassed then mesmerized and won't look at me at all.
posted by spamandkimchi at 6:50 PM on January 24, 2015 [5 favorites]

I think that his dance moves seem awfully familiar. He is disco bird.

Too bad they didn't show his penthouse. Those birds are architects.

I think it wouldn't have mattered if he stepped on her head if he'd only been able to show her his shiny blue disco ball.
posted by futz at 8:21 PM on January 24, 2015

That bowerbird needs a fedora. That'll work for sure.
posted by Metroid Baby at 8:30 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

Truly, what this is really about is ethics in purple things held in one's beak. #bowergate
posted by surazal at 9:07 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

"Knocking her chest with his beak."

This isn't where it went wrong?
posted by slipthought at 9:49 PM on January 24, 2015

I have been boinging up and down while undulating my left arm at random with a blue hairtie in my mouth and my head cocked over my left shoulder and I feel like I'm getting something wrong. I feel neither sultry nor erotic and my mate seems more embarrassed then mesmerized and won't look at me at all.

Maybe that's because you've already got a mate. These are moves for the singles bar.
posted by Kevin Street at 10:24 PM on January 24, 2015

LLLLLLLLLLLLLADIES.
posted by ostranenie at 7:50 AM on January 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

Reader, I married him.

(I love blue)
posted by ikahime at 9:37 AM on January 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

This just cries out for a dubstep remix.

See also.
posted by gusandrews at 10:16 AM on January 25, 2015

Sir David Attenborough narrates, one presumes?
posted by clvrmnky at 4:02 PM on January 25, 2015

clvrmnky: Sir David Attenborough narrates, one presumes?

He does in my bachelor pad.

(Ladies, it's blue.)

(And I won't step on your head.)
posted by IAmBroom at 5:06 PM on January 27, 2015

Dog dances to salsa in his sleep
posted by homunculus at 1:36 PM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Now I want to dress as a male bowerbird for Halloween some year. (Oh, who am I kidding? If I can't get the courage up to dress as a secretary bird because I know my friends and co-workers will think I've completely lost it, how will I manage to do this?)
posted by Lexica at 8:05 PM on February 2, 2015