It’s no secret that some birds like to collect shiny things. In the case of the humble bowerbird, males often build impressive twig structures and then decorate them with shiny objects that have been collected along their travels to attract and impress female mates.
In this video, we see a male doing just that. A suspecting female appears to swoop down in interest, but after several courtship attempts, it becomes clear that the bird isn’t a female at all. Instead, it’s another male that attempts to steal some of the original male’s bling.
Researchers carefully placed an animatronic bowerbird with a hidden camera placed in its eye socket and several other hidden cameras placed inside of the shiny objects surrounding it. In doing so, they were able to capture rare footage of birds stealing shiny objects from another.
It soon becomes obvious that the birds work as teams, with one bird acting as a distraction to the victim as others swoop in to take objects.
Indeed, these conniving birds are no better than burglars to one another.
