Spotted Bowerbird in Victoria?

Hi bird people,

Last weekend my daughter was invited to join a friend’s family on a house boat up at Mildura. When we picked her up she told me of a few birds she had seen, which included finding a bowerbirds bower near the river. She has seen Bowerbird’s bowers before a number of times with me in various places (always the Satin), so she knows what she is looking at. Of course my jaw dropped when I realized what she had said. This could only be a Spotted Bowerbird that far north. I have quizzed her as to the location, but it’s nearly impossible to work it out because they had been sailing upstream for some hours/days and just moored at a random spot, wherever they felt like, so somewhere between Mildura and Hattah is as close as I can get at the moment. I might try asking her friend’s parents where they think it might be to at least get a better idea. It was on the Victorian side of the river !!

The last breeding pairs of Spotted Bowerbirds in Victoria seem to have been in the Swan Hill, Boundary Bend and Robinvale areas according to Hanzab. I know there are still birds reported between Moulamein and Balranald at least, in southern NSW ( I saw a bower in that area a few years back).

Given the good rains in the district over the last couple of years, perhaps these birds will make a bit of a comeback ? There is so much fruit grown along the river that I’ve no doubt they could flourish in the region, if they were allowed to do so, which is perhaps unlikely.

I’d be interested in anyone’s sightings of Spotted Bowerbirds in northern Victoria or adjacent NSW, particularly recently. I am not aware of any SB’s seen in Victoria in the last few years ?!?

Cheers,

Simon Starr.

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