CreatureData

Flame bowerbird

Sericulus ardens (D'Albertis & Salvadori, 1879)

LCLeast Concernsongbirds

The flame bowerbird (Sericulus ardens) is a species in the family Ptilonorhynchidae, order Passeriformes. Recorded adults weigh 130 g to 172.2 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

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Quick facts about the flame bowerbird

Weight
130 g – 172.2 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Frugivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
forestsrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Lifestyle
Perchingsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Sedentarysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

Where does the flame bowerbird live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The flame bowerbird is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the flame bowerbird?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The flame bowerbird (Sericulus ardens) is one of the most bright coloured bowerbirds. The male is a medium-sized bird, up to 25 cm long, with flame orange and golden yellow plumage, elongated neck plumes and yellow-tipped black tail. It builds an "avenue-type" bower with two side walls of sticks. The female is an olive brown bird with yellow or golden around the stomach.

The flame bowerbird is distributed in and endemic to rainforests of southern New Guinea. The male flame bowerbird also has a courtship display along with his bower, twisting his tails and his wings to the side, and then shaking his head quickly.

The courtship behaviour of the flame bowerbird was filmed by Japanese photographer Tadashi Shimada in Dancers on Fire, a documentary that aired on the Smithsonian Channel, and has also been documented in Dancing with the Birds. Shimada additionally filmed some flame bowerbirds engaged in same-sex courting behavior, such as a male courting a juvenile male and several juvenile males as well as an adult male appearing to share one bower, only to be destroyed by another juvenile male.

The flame bowerbird is evaluated as least concerned on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

From the Wikipedia article “Flame bowerbird” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flame_bowerbird&oldid=1384896157), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the flame bowerbird endangered?

The flame bowerbird is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the flame bowerbird classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderPasseriformes
  5. familyPtilonorhynchidae
  6. genusSericulus
  7. SpeciesSericulus ardens (D'Albertis & Salvadori, 1879)

Synonyms Sericulus aureus ardens, Xanthomelus ardens

Other names and names in other languages (28)
  • Flame bowerbird (flame)English
  • arquer flamígerCatalan
  • MaskeløvhyttefuglDanish
  • FlammenlaubenvogelGerman
  • Flammen-LaubvogelGerman
  • flama ptilonorinkoEsperanto
  • Pergolero flamígeroSpanish
  • leek-lehtlalindEstonian
  • tulihuntulavastajaFinnish
  • Jardinier ardentFrench
  • Jardinier flamboyantFrench
  • zlatna vrtlaricaCroatian
  • Namdur apiIndonesian
  • rausvasis auksinis palapinukasLithuanian
  • Oranje PrieelvogelDutch
  • flammegartnerNorwegian
  • altannik ognistyPolish
  • perguleiro-ardentePortuguese
  • jardineiro-flamejantePortuguese
  • Огненный шалашникRussian
  • Огненный золотой шалашникRussian
  • šiatorník ohnivýSlovak
  • Plamena baštovankaSerbian
  • flamlövsalsfågelSwedish
  • Alev Başlı ÇardakkuşuTurkish
  • альтанник вогнистоголовийUkrainian
  • 火红辉亭鸟Chinese
  • 鮮紅別墅鳥Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the flame bowerbird

Other species in the same genus Sericulus.

CompareFlame bowerbird vs Regent bowerbirdFlame bowerbird vs Masked bowerbirdFlame bowerbird vs Fire-maned bowerbird

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the flame bowerbird?

An adult flame bowerbird weighs 130 g – 172.2 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the flame bowerbird live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the flame bowerbird for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the flame bowerbird endangered?

The flame bowerbird is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the flame bowerbird?

The flame bowerbird (Sericulus ardens) belongs to the family Ptilonorhynchidae in the order Passeriformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Flame bowerbird (Sericulus ardens). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/flame-bowerbird

MLA

“Flame bowerbird (Sericulus ardens).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/flame-bowerbird.

BibTeX
@misc{flame_bowerbird_2026,
  title = {Flame bowerbird (Sericulus ardens)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/flame-bowerbird},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}