This Bird Builds A Tiny Art Gallery Just To Impress A Date

It arranges objects by color and even fakes perspective, all for love.

Some animals show off with a dance. The bowerbird builds an entire installation. The male constructs a structure and decorates it so carefully that calling it interior design is not much of a stretch.

He gathers berries, petals, shells, bottle caps, and bits of glass, then sorts them by color into neat arrangements around his bower. Some individuals stick loyally to a favorite shade, like blue, and hunt it down obsessively.

The cleverest builders arrange objects from small to large to create a forced-perspective illusion, which may make the display, and the bird, look more impressive to a visiting female checking out the scene.

If a female is unimpressed, the male rearranges and tries again. It is courtship as curation, an animal that seemingly grasps color, composition, and even a little visual trickery, all in the name of a good first impression.