A man went for a walk in the forest when he suddenly came upon a small shed filled with wild berries. It is quite common to find such shed in the forests of Australia and New Guinea.
At first, he thought some people built the shed to store wild fruits. After careful observations, he found out that the building was only 30 centimeters in diameter and a few thick sticks were used as the foundation of the shed. Grass was lined on the sticks to form it into a shed.
What was more surprising was there were rooms in the shed and in each room had different types of wild fruits stored in them
The man felt puzzled. Who would deliberately build a shed in the forest?
So he waited patiently for the owner to show up
After a few hours of waiting, the owner finally showed himself or rather, itself.
The owner was a small little bird and this gave the man a big surprise!
This bird built a straw shed to hoard the berries it collected. After asking around, the man found out that this bird which built its own house was called The Brown Gardener.
This bird can spend up to ten months building the intricate nest and decorating it with edible berries and discarded trash
However, the shed does not serve as their home. The reason why this bird builds and decorates its shed with bright items and assorted berries is to attract female birds. Male birds would use their artistic creation and the food they collected to attract female birds.
It is the only kind of animal with this behavior, of course except humans
Brown Gardener birds would place black fruits and beetles in its yard. The red flowers that were collected and set aside in its yard really attracted a lot of attention.
Brown Gardener birds prefer to place items of the same colour together so that it looks neat and pleases the female birds
The Brown Gardener bird’s nest has a roof which is woven from the stem of orchids. They usually build their nest in open areas or at the base of small trees. Usually, a Brown Gardener bird’s nest would have a stick or a few sticks to act as a support for its nest.
In front of the shed was a large courtyard and red flowers could be seen on top of a mound of green moss
The fruits that the bird collected do not only became a decoration to its nest, it would also eat them as a reward for its hard labour
All the mating preparations were done.
All was left was to wait for a female gardener bird to approach the shed and share the nest together
When a female bird approaches the shed, it would usually inspect its future house.
If a female gardener bird is spotted by the male, the male bird would start flapping its wings and singing to attract its prospective partner
Blue fruits and bottle caps are a male’s favorite collection items
When the male gardener bird has successfully mated with a female bird, it would not rest because it has to wait for the arrival of the next ‘beauty’. The mating process would continue for another more days.
In Australia and New Guinea, do not be alarmed or surprised if you find something weird in the forest like this shed with colourful petals, berries, and trash in neat piles in the shed.
It is most likely Brown Gardeners’ shed
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