Garden inspiration: bowerbirds

We are trying hard to attract a range of different bird and animal species to our garden, by including a range of different local plants, such as grasses, understorey plants and a few larger bushes and trees, as well as making water available. Many of the bolder bird species (magpies, magpie-larks, rosellas and miners) call by regularly.

But our local satin bowerbird prefers to build his bower among privet and camphor laurel bushes, right next to a path, on the school grounds near our house.

A fine collection of blue plastic attracts the ladies. Image by Emma Rooksby.

Whatever makes him happy I suppose...When I visited today he was doing a bit of a tidy-up. It's another of my not-great shots - need to get practising with that telephoto lense!

The garden itself is the brighter for a few Mountain Devil (Lambertia formosa) flowers.

Mountain Devils grow as a large shrub or bush (up to 2 or 3m), distinguished by their beautiful flowers and by the horned seed capsules that follow flowering. They do look a bit devilish, as the picture on this page about growing them shows. They can be hard to establish (we have about a 50% success rate), but once they're settled in they're hardy and make an excellent screen.