[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Bowerbirds, art and aesthetics: Are bowerbirds artists and do they have an aesthetic sense?

Endler, 2012, Communicative & Integrative Biology — Biology

Patterns: [Perspectives](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/perspectives)

## In short

The ability to take multiple Perspectives has evolved into Bowerbird’s mating process over time, resulting in birds that can create illusions and beautiful displays.

## What they found (results)

All of these Perspectives are taken in order to attract more mates, and research shows that it works. The birds who are better at creating these displays and taking multiple Perspectives get more mates overall.

## What they set out to do (purpose)

To explore if Bowerbirds create "art" or not.

## In more detail

Birds are able to take Perspectives as well. Endler 2012 researches the fascinating mate-display building behavior of Bowerbirds. They build what is called a bower, shown in Figure 27.

They then decorate their bower with a series of uncolored and colored objects, taking the Perspective of color into account. Great bowerbirds take another Perspective: size. They organize their colorless objects by increasing size further away from the bower, creating a geometric pattern. This can actually allow the male bird to create forced Perspective and entice females to their bower.

Some Bowerbirds dive deeper into the color Perspective and sort their brightly colored objects by color as well, shown in Figure 29.

All of these Perspectives are taken in order to attract more mates, and research shows that it works. It works because the male Bowerbirds are not only using Perspective to make a more appealing nest, but their use of Forced Perspective demonstrates that they also have a Theory of Mind. The birds who are better at creating these displays and taking multiple Perspectives get more mates overall. The ability to take multiple Perspectives has evolved into Bowerbird’s mating process over time, resulting in birds that can create illusions and beautiful displays.

## Abstract

Male bowerbirds create and decorate a structure called a bower which serves only to attract females for mating, and females visit and choose one among many bower owners before deciding which male to mate with. Is what they do art, and do they have an aesthetic sense? I propose operational definitions of art, judgement, and an aesthetic sense which depend upon communication theory which allow one to get explicit answers to this question. By these definitions Great Bowerbirds are artists, judge art, and therefore have an aesthetic sense.

These researchers were not testing DSRP. The finding is theirs; the correspondence to DSRP is drawn by this site.

[Source](https://doi.org/10.4161/cib.19481)