Spotted Bowerbird, Chlamydera maculata

The Spotted Bowerbird occurs through much of central and southern Queensland and central and western New South Wales, as far south as the Murray River, where it formerly extended at least as far south as Swan Reach. Last South Australian record: 1930s.

The male Spotted Bowerbird builds a bower of dry stems up to a metre high and decorates it with white and pale green objects. The Bowerbirds mostly eat fruit and they often raided orchards and kitchen gardens. Consequently they were shot at and driven out by European settlers, and this was probably an important cause of their demise in South Australia, along with clearance of their preferred habitat of riverine woodland, lignum and mallee scrub.