Satin Bowerbirds in all their Glory

The dominant male of the local Satin Bowerbird harem turned up on the Feeder table yesterday afternoon, in brilliant sunlight. He even felt sufficiently relaxed to allow me to take some images, from a lounge chair inside the back door (open just enough for us to see eachother).

What follows is largely a photo essay, because, the male bird is so magnificent, in itself, that words are largely superfluous.

Male Satin Bowerbird - on feeder, being "watchful".
The Scientific name is Ptilonorhynchus violaceus
That linked name takes you to the Birds in Backyards site, to tell you more.Getting down to it.

Beak on the side, to get a really good peck at the soft fruit.
Note the really fine feathers above the beak, and how they shine.

This shows the ivory-coloured beak
and the magnificent violet coloured eye, diffused with red veins.

Pausing for another good look at me.
And here he is swallowing a bit piece of Pear.
Slight movement blur, as he is very fast.

What I did not show was that there was a juvenile bird
waiting while the dominant male occupied the table.
As soon as he flew, the juvenile came up for its share.
That's called "pecking order" in action.

The youngster popped up, once the table was free.
Here is stops to make its growling call.
You can see the soft gape, typical of a young bird

I hope to display some photos soon of mature females, which have much finer plumage on the chest and abdomen than this bird, which has a cream base-colour with strong "lunette" (crescent) marked feathers.

Note the strong bronze colour on the wings of this "green bird".That colour shows up very clearly as these birds fly.