Biological Origin of the Stoop Sale?

The bower

meet the bowerbird (not pictured). the most notable characteristic of bowerbirds is their extraordinarily complex courtship and mating behavior.

to attract females, the male builds a bower (pictured). in and around the bower, he places a variety of the brightly colored items he has collected: shells, leaves, stones, berries, discarded plastic bits, coins, pieces of glass, and/or rifle shells. the male spends hours arranging his collection. he sometimes paints the bower walls.

The Bowery

females commonly visit multiple bowers, often returning several times to potential candidates, and watch discerningly as the males arrange their displays. the females inspect the quality of each bower -- sometimes going so far as to taste the paint.

many females end up selecting the same male, and many under-performing males are left without copulations. females mated with top-mating males tend to return to that male the next year and search less.