Artist-naturalist Mary Jo McConnell has traveled to a remote region of Papua New Guinea every year since 1992 to paint a group of bowers constructed by Vogelkop bowerbirds (Amblyornis inornata).  Watch a brief PBS Frontline documentary about McConnell’s remarkable odyssey to her field site, view examples of her striking bower paintings and listen as McConnell shares her observations of individual bower-makers that convinced her these birds are true artists.  The event takes place in the Phillips Library Auditorium of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem on Friday, April 23, beginning at 7:45, and is free.  Co-sponsored by the Essex County Ornithological Club, the E.C.O.C. meeting will be held from 7:30 – 7:45.  For more information, and directions to the museum, log on to www.pem.org.