Adornment Artists: Bowerbirds

Did you know that there are birds that adorn their nests? Just like humans who decorate the place in which they live, some bird species adorn their nests too. The behaviors of these birds are certainly amazing; sometimes they embellish their nests with the decorative objects they collect or paint the walls of their nests with pink fruits.

The bowerbird, which is one of the birds that paint their nests, is a real “master of architecture”. The size of a male bowerbird is like that of a pigeon. While building its nest, it arranges hundreds of thin branches in two lines each facing one another. This way it builds a bower. It piles up all the stuff it picks from the environment in front of this bower. This may even be a butterfly's wing, a bird's feather, a car key or some wrapping paper. This bird is particularly interested in blue objects. As you can see in the picture on the other page, it has gathered all the blue objects it could find in its nest.

In addition to this, it uses some other means of decoration as well. The bowerbird also paints the walls of its nest. What is more, it prepares the paint itself. Do you want to know how? It gathers plants in different colors and paints the walls by using their extracts. Sometimes it uses coal, which it mixes with its saliva. It also paints the nest's walls, which are made up of branches, with a piece of bark it chews in its mouth.

Allah is the Creator of all bird species, including those we don’t ever see like bowerbirds and those that we frequently see like pigeons and gulls. Allah the All-Glorious teaches a little bird how to build and decorate its nest. What we should do is to reflect thoroughly on such characteristics of animals to have a better understanding of Allah's boundless power. Allah states in a verse in Surat al-Jathiyya: