In order to capture the dazzling, courtship display of the little-known Flame Bowerbird the crew first had to reach a remote forest in Papua New Guinea, a 6-hour boat journey from the nearest town.

In Noah Strycker's "The Thing with Feathers," I read about the males of a certain species of birds whose courtship behavior verges on the creation of a form of art. The bowerbird, which is ...