CreatureData

Great bowerbird

Chlamydera nuchalis (Jardine & Selby, 1830)

LCLeast Concernsongbirds

The great bowerbird (Chlamydera nuchalis) is a species in the family Ptilonorhynchidae, order Passeriformes. Recorded adults weigh 187.8 g to 219.2 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Great bowerbird (Chlamydera nuchalis)
Photo: JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the great bowerbird

Weight
187.8 g – 219.2 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Omnivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
shrublandsrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch
1.4src for Young per litter or clutch
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 great 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 great 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 great bowerbird?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The great bowerbird (Chlamydera nuchalis) is a common and conspicuous resident of northern Australia, from the area around Broome across the Top End to Cape York Peninsula and as far south as Mount Isa and Townsville. Favoured habitat is a broad range of forest and woodland, and the margins of vine forests, monsoon forest, and mangrove swamps.

As with most members of the bowerbird family, breeding considerations dominate the lifecycle: females nest inconspicuously and raise their young alone, while the males spend most of the year building, maintaining, improving, defending, and above all displaying from their bowers. Only a male with a successful bower can attract mates.

The great bowerbird is the largest of the bowerbird family and is 33 to 38 cm long and fawny grey in colour. Males have a small but conspicuous pink crest on the nape of the neck.

From the Wikipedia article “Great bowerbird” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Great_bowerbird&oldid=1314460474), 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 great bowerbird endangered?

The great 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 great bowerbird classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderPasseriformes
  5. familyPtilonorhynchidae
  6. genusChlamydera
  7. SpeciesChlamydera nuchalis (Jardine & Selby, 1830)

Synonyms Ptilonorhynchus nuchalis, Ptilonorhynchus nuchalis nuchalis

Other names and names in other languages (32)
  • arquer grosCatalan
  • lemčík velkýCzech
  • aderyn deildy mawrWelsh
  • Stor LøvhyttefuglDanish
  • GraulaubenvogelGerman
  • Grauer LaubenvogelGerman
  • KragenlaubenvogelGerman
  • granda ptilonorinkoEsperanto
  • Pergolero grandeSpanish
  • suur-lehtlalindEstonian
  • isohelmilavastajaFinnish
  • Jardinier à nuque roseFrench
  • velika vrtlaricaCroatian
  • mályvapártás lugasépítőHungarian
  • Uccello giardiniere maggioreItalian
  • オオニワシドリJapanese
  • didžioji chlamideraLithuanian
  • Grijze PrieelvogelDutch
  • grågartnerNorwegian
  • jedwabnica szaraPolish
  • jardineiro-grandePortuguese
  • pássaro-arquiteto-cinzaPortuguese
  • perguleiro-cinzentoPortuguese
  • Большой беседочникRussian
  • Большая беседковая птицаRussian
  • šiatorník sivýSlovak
  • Velika baštovankaSerbian
  • större lövsalsfågelSwedish
  • Gri ÇardakkuşuTurkish
  • ойсея великаUkrainian
  • 大亭鸟Chinese
  • 大園丁鳥Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the great bowerbird

Other species in the same genus Chlamydera.

CompareGreat bowerbird vs Spotted bowerbirdGreat bowerbird vs Fawn-breasted bowerbirdGreat bowerbird vs Western bowerbirdGreat bowerbird vs Yellow-breasted bowerbird

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the great bowerbird?

An adult great bowerbird weighs 187.8 g – 219.2 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the great bowerbird live?

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

Is the great bowerbird endangered?

The great 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 great bowerbird?

The great bowerbird (Chlamydera nuchalis) 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). Great bowerbird (Chlamydera nuchalis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/great-bowerbird

MLA

“Great bowerbird (Chlamydera nuchalis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/great-bowerbird.

BibTeX
@misc{great_bowerbird_2026,
  title = {Great bowerbird (Chlamydera nuchalis)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/great-bowerbird},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}