Greater Bird-of-Paradise

Identification

The greater bird-of-paradise is the largest member of the genus Paradisaea, with "the most glamorous display in the bird world". With males measuring up to 43 cm (17 in) (excluding the long twin tail wires). The female is smaller, at 35 cm (14 in). The plumage of this species is also sexually dimorphic. The male has an iridescent green face and a yellow glossed with silver iridescent crown, head, and nape. The rest of the body plumage is maroon-brown. The flank plumes, used in displays, are yellow at the base, turning white and streaked with maroon. The female has unbarred maroon-brown plumage. In both sexes, the iris is yellow and the bill is blue.

Taxonomy

The greater bird-of-paradise was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the current binomial name Paradisaea apoda. The genus name is from the Late Latin paradisus meaning "paradise", due to the voyagers in Ferdinand Magellan's circumnavigation of the Earth, the first Europeans to encounter this animals. Antonio Pigafetta, the main chronicler of that expedition, wrote that "The people told us that those birds came from the terrestrial paradise, and they call them bolon diuata, that is to say, 'birds of God'." The specific epithet apod combines the Ancient Greek a- meaning "lacking" and pous, podus meaning "foot". Although several subspecies have been described, these are now not recognised and the greater bird-of-paradise is considered to be monotypic.

Scientific name

Paradisaea apoda

Authority

Linnaeus, 1758

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Paradisaeidae

Genus

Paradisaea

Range and habitat

The greater bird-of-paradise is distributed to lowland and hill forests of southwest New Guinea and Aru Islands, Indonesia. The diet consists mainly of fruits, seeds, and small insects. A small population was introduced by Sir William Ingram in 1909-1912 to Little Tobago Island of West Indies in an attempt to save the species from extinction due to overhunting for plume trades. The introduced populations survived until at least 1966, but most likely are extinct now. The bird still appears on Trinidad and Tobago's $100 bill.

Migration

Resident species

Behavior

Greater Birds-of-paradise, like a majority of their relatives, are fond of fruits and arthropods; birds in female-type plumage are often found foraging in association with other bird-of-paradise species and even other bird species. Wallace noted in The Malay Archipelago, that they become active before sunrise, when their loud wawk-wawk, wǒk-wǒk-wǒk cries resound through the forest, as they move about in different directions in search of food.<p>Male greater birds-of-paradise, as polygynous breeders, experience female selection, in which females choose male mates based upon indirect genetic benefits which increase offspring fitness. Since males do not contribute to offspring in any other way (i.e. through parental care), females have to assess male fitness through courtship rituals, details of which are in the following sections.<p>Males display in trees above the ground and congregate in a lek or “court” versus individually displaying for females. Males will initially congregate around common display areas on a secondary perch, away from the main viewing perches available, and flap their wings rapidly. They will then move to the main viewing perches, erecting their large plumes at their rumps over their backs and extending their wings (Pose 1). They subsequently depress their bodies close to the branches that they are on, retract their wings, leave their tail plumes erected, and prance or charge along their branch (Pose 2). The birds will then freeze with their bills pointed downwards, wings extended once again, and tail plumes still upright (Pose 3). Males will assume this last position, referred to as the “flower position” when females are present, for inspection purposes, but will refrain and remain in position two, moving in synchrony, when females are absent.<p>Males will often visit each other's display grounds, located relatively close to each other, but will perform the majority of their displays at a common court. Other courtship behaviors outside of the physical dance can consist of bill-wiping, in which the male pauses the dance and brushes both sides of his beak on the branch, as well as leaf-tearing, hanging upside down from the branch, and vocalizations.<p>Males use eight variations of calls, commonly referred to as “wauks” within courtship rituals, each linked to a section of the courtship dance:<p>Daily display rhythm<p>Males spend the majority of their time during mating seasons at their respective display grounds. They begin calling before sunrise and cease shortly after sunset. They feed very briefly and infrequently, moving away from display grounds in the heat of the afternoon, and returning before dusk. This mating behavior most commonly occurs between March and May, and again August through December, but can occur during other parts of the year as well.

Conservation

Population trend

declining