Philip Grady, age 12, of Solon, Ohio, for his question:

Is it true that a bowerbird builds a fancy nest?

It is true that he is the bird world's master architect and home decorator. It is true that he uses his extraordinary artistic talents to build a most fanciful residence, complete with a landscaped lawn. However, this masterpiece is not designed to be a nest for eggs or a nursery for growing chicks. The bowerbird's beauteous bower is a boudoir.

Courtship in the bird world is amazing or amusing, and always charming. In many species, the males dance and prance around and display their handsome plumage to attract the females. After these spectacular ceremonies, most of them become diligently devoted husbands and fathers.

The bowerbirds, however, do not participate in family routine    perhaps because they are too exhausted. These artistic fellows pour their whole hearts into most elaborate courtships. They are gifted dancers, singers and clever mimics. But their greatest talents are expended in creating fantastically fancy bowers to attract the females.

The 19 or so known species live in Australia and New Guinea, some of them in dense, nearly inaccessible jungles. Most of them resemble bluejays with vivid patches of ruby red or peacock colors. Some wear feathery tufts that look like jaunty berets. Each species creates his own design for the lavish bower and landscaped lawn.

A bower bird spends many months constructing and maintaining his work of art. His bower is an elaborate chamber of twigs and foliage. He uses shells and shiny stones, berries and flowers to bedeck his whole place with elaborate designs. He changes the flowers and rearranges the decor every day. After all, who knows when a lady bowerbird will saunter by?

The maypole bowerbird builds a teepee with twigs around a slim sapling. The golden bowerbird builds a tower nine feet tall and lines the rooms inside with mosses and lichens and floral arrangements. Several species plaster the inside walls of their boudoirs. They use leaves or wads of bark to daub on blue or greenish mud. A few animals use work tools. But only the artistic bowerbirds use paint brushes.

Often a group of males occupy a forest glade. They eye the creations of their rivals and often snitch bits of finery from each other. When at last a rather. drab looking female arrives, the glade is a twitter with excitement. Each male dances on his lawn,sings his serenade and perhaps mimics other birdsongs. Chances are, the critical female will choose a lover and enter his bower. Then she deserts him    for a modest nest she makes for herself.

The female goes off to build a modest nest, lay the eggs and raise the growing chicks. Meantime the males keep their bowers in apple pie order, waiting for a visit from the next female. Observers report that this event is charged with tension. When one male is selected, his rivals register great despair. In one species, believe it or not, a rejected suitor has been known to fall down into a dead faint.