Blue Bird-of-Paradise
Paradisornis rudolphi
A large bird of mid-montane forests in eastern New Guinea. Black head and back, bright blue wings and tail, white bill and split eye-ring. Male also has reddish and blue plumes and 2 long, black tail streamers. Male has a remarkable display, hanging upside down from a low perch. Female, brownish below, with slight barring. Both sexes are unmistakable. Male gives a far carrying, upslurred “where?!” repeated at intervals from a high perch.
Identification
Arguably one of the most fabulous of its family, the blue bird-of-paradise is among the larger birds-of-paradise, being around 30 cm, or a little over a foot in length (excluding the long tail wires), rivaling some of the Paradisaea and Manucodia species. Unlike the Paradisaea birds, the male is mostly glossy black overall with silver-white crescents surrounding the eyes (in both sexes). They have a very crow-like bill that is whiteish to light greyish in colour. The back of the head has a reddish gloss that stretches down to the mantle, or back. A defining feature found in both sexes are the shiny, blue wings that are more commonly light blue but can range from light blue, aqua, or even a skyish-baby blue; the tail is also like this. Stretching from the tail are two blackish and elongated wires with small, whitish spatulate tips similar Paradisaea males' wires. The most brilliant and distinctive feature present on the male are the fine, silky elongated flank plumes that are mainly a dull amber colour on the surface; below, they are a light blue, based by two dark crimson lines on each side of the lower belly. These elegant features help the male create an illusion for his potential audience. The female, however, is more or less similar to the male; of course, she lacks the opulent flank plumes and tail wires present on the male, but she does sport bright blue wings and tail feathers like the male. Instead of having an all-black underside, she is chestnut-brown below with blackish barring. Her head and neck are duller also, with only a faint reddish gloss present. They have purplish-grey legs and feet and greyer claws. The wires on the blue bird-of-paradise are 25 inches long.
Taxonomy
The blue bird-of-paradise was formally described in 1886 by the German naturalists Otto Finsch and Adolf Bernhard Meyer. They placed the bird in a new genus Paradisornis and coined the binomial name Paradisornis rudolphi. The genus name Paradisornis combines the Ancient Greek paradeisos meaning "paradise" with ornis meaning "bird". The specific epithet rudolphi was chosen to honour Archduke Rudolf Franz Karl Joseph, the Crown-Prince of Austria. This species was formerly placed in the genus Paradisaea.<p>Two subspecies are recognised:<p>The blue bird-of-paradise is known to have hybridized with Lawes's parotia (Parotia lawesii), which is called "Schodde's bird-of-paradise", and also with the Raggiana bird-of-paradise (Paradisaea raggiana).
- Scientific name
- Paradisornis rudolphi
- Authority
- Finsch & Meyer, AB, 1886
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Paradisaeidae
- Genus
- Paradisornis
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
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