Victoria's Riflebird
Ptiloris victoriae
Large songbird with long decurved bill. Male almost completely black, with green and blue metallic sheen on belly, throat, and crown. Female brown above, buff below, with a sparse scaly pattern on chest and belly and a pale eyebrow. Inhabits rainforest and nearby drier forest in northern Queensland (i.e., around Cairns). Call a loud explosive hiss, often repeated. Males display from a prominent upright stump or snag, holding wings high above the head, flashing bright yellow gape, bobbing, raising wings individually, and swaying.
Identification
The smallest riflebird, it measures between 23–25 cm. Males have an iridescent purple sheen plumage, which becomes more blue-green on the head and more bronze on the lower breast. The throat is velvety black with a metallic green and blue triangular patch in the center. Females have a pale eyebrow, and the buff underparts are faintly barred with brown.
Taxonomy
The Victoria's riflebird was discovered by John Macgillivray for John Gould in 1848 and is named after Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. The common name "riflebird" comes from the likeness of their black velvety plumage to the uniform of the British Army Rifle Brigade.
- Scientific name
- Ptiloris victoriae
- Authority
- Gould, 1850
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Paradisaeidae
- Genus
- Ptiloris
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
When the male begins to display, he erects the feathers of his throat and sides to accentuate the bright colours of his plumage in the shafts of sunlight that pierce the dimness of the rainforest. He curves his rounded wings above his body and tilts his head back to expose his chin and throat to the light, and then moves from side to side in a fashion that looks almost mechanical.<p>The female is attracted to the male's display post by his raspy 'yaars' call, which becomes softer and more tuneful during the display.<p>The pair then face each other closely, and each bird raises and extends its wings forward alternately in an increasingly rapid rhythm. Finally the male embraces the female with both wings, and copulation ensues.<p><p>As well as insects, they eat fruits from the trees, some which they peel by holding the fruit with one foot and removing the skin with their bill.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Flores Scops-Owl
Otus alfredi
A small owl with yellow eyes, a pale bill, an unmarked rufous face and ear tufts, a pale forehead, mainly rufous upperparts with prominent white spots in the wings, and a faintly-scaled pale grayish underside. Juvenile is largely pale rufous, with little barring but strong tail bands. Inhabits montane forest on Flores. Distinguished from larger Wallace’s and Moluccan Scops-Owls by rufous appearance, pale bill, lack of prominent dark facial border, and absence of bold streaking on underparts. Song is a distinctive crake-like, stuttering “da-da-da-da-da-da-da,” wavering in pitch.
Sladen's Barbet
Gymnobucco sladeni
Dark, chunky barbet with an odd tuft of buff feathers on its forehead. Usually found in small groups on and around dead trees in lowland rainforest, gallery forest, and secondary growth. Sometimes occurs alongside Gray-throated Barbet. The vocalizations include nasal “squeaky toy” calls and agitated dry rattles. Gray-throated Barbet also has a dark bill, but Sladen’s Barbet is separated from that species by its largely unfeathered head.
Galapagos Shearwater
Puffinus subalaris
Very small black-and-white shearwater of warm tropical waters. Can be seen from shore off the coast of Oaxaca. Often in flocks, sometimes of thousands, resting on the water and in feeding flocks with Brown Boobies, Black Terns, and other shearwaters. Flight quick and low, with hurried wingbeats and only short glides. Smaller and shorter-winged than Black-vented Shearwater and rare Townsend’s Shearwater. Black-vented has messier brown colors on the side of its head, without distinct dark cap of Galapagos. Townsend’s is blacker above with white patches (saddlebags) at sides of rump.
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