New paper on debris in Bowerbird bowers

#Bowers are incredible structures built by male #bowerbirds who invest countless hours weaving grass & sticks together. To this the male adds brightly coloured decorations that will help him attract a mate: bits of shell, fruits & leaves. Increasingly, however, natural decorations are being replaced with #plastic & this is bad news for bowerbirds.

New research from the #AdriftLab team found:
🪹 100% of sampled #GreatBowerbird bowers contain plastic decorations
🐦 Most bowers contained >250 debris items
♻️ Some common items were bottle caps, clothes pegs & tile spacers
📿 #entanglement in ribbons, wire & other items is a concern
🏞️ Bowers in a remote #NationalPark still had high debris loads

Access the paper here (for free) https://doi.org/10.1186/s43591-025-00133-w

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: this study is only possible because of the assistance of the #NorthernTerritory birding community & passionate #CitizenScientists. It was a joy to meet folks who ‘adopted’ their neighborhood bowerbirds & lovingly watched bower construction over many years. It was also a pleasure to work with Adrift Lab alumni Hayley Charlton-Howard on this paper, and great fun dragging Andrew Fidler around to “do science” while officially on holidays 😆 (This is another fantastic research outcome, despite the entire team self-funding the field work and receiving zero salary. This isn’t how science should be done, but it’s the reality for many of us #BeKind)

#OzBirds #CommunityScience #PlasticPollution #Katherine #Mataranka #Nitmiluk #3Dscanning