Arfak ray bird of paradise
| Arfak ray bird of paradise | ||||||||||||
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Arfak ray bird of paradise |
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| Parotia sefilata | ||||||||||||
| ( Forster , 1781) |
The Arfak parotia ( Parotia sefilata , even) parotia called, is a species from the family of birds of paradise (Paradisaeidae). It occurs exclusively in the west of New Guinea. As is characteristic of a bird of paradise, the male has three elongated decorative feathers on each side of the head. Compared to other rays of paradise , the tail plumage is comparatively long, but does not reach the length that can be found in the mad bird of paradise .
The population of the Arfak bird of paradise is classified by the IUCN as safe ( least concern ). No subspecies are distinguished.
description
Body type and measurements
The males of the Arfak bird of paradise reach a body length of 33 centimeters, of which the tail plumage accounts for 12.5 to 13.7 centimeters. The females remain slightly smaller with a body length of 30 centimeters. They have 12.2 to 13.4 centimeters on the tail plumage. In both sexes, the middle pair of control feathers is 2 millimeters longer than the rest of the tail plumage.
The beak measures between 3 and 4 centimeters in the males and between 3 and 3.7 centimeters in the females. The males weigh between 175 and 205 grams, the females between 140 and 185 grams. There is a pronounced gender dimorphism.
male
The males have a velvety black plumage. At the front of the head there is a triangle of slightly elongated and pointed silver-colored feathers that the bird can set up. Immediately behind it is a feather comb consisting of feathers, the front of which shimmers intensely blue and the back shimmers intensely purple to magenta. These springs can also be erected. The vertex between these decorative feathers and the feathers in front of the silver triangle and on the sides of the face shine in a dark bronze color. Behind each eye, at the level of the ear covers, there are feather ears made of elongated, pointed feathers. Three of the feathers are strongly elongated like a wire and end in small, almost round ovals. The coat and the back have a silk-like shine and can have a bronze-colored shimmer in certain lighting conditions.
The chin and throat are velvet black and shimmer bronze in certain lighting conditions. The feathers on the chest shine intensely emerald green to greenish yellow and can also shine purple or magenta in certain light conditions. The rest of the underside of the body is glossy black. The beak is glossy black, the iris is cobalt blue with a narrow yellowish ring.
So far not sexually mature males have been described. In their first year of life, they presumably resemble adult females and then gradually change to the plumage of adult males, as is the case with other birds of paradise.
female
The females have a black-brown head with a short, dirty-whitish streak of beard. A very narrow, barely discernible over-eye stripe runs over the eye . The coat, the back, the rump and the upper tail-coverts are reddish brown. The tail plumage is earth brown. The chin is reddish, the throat is blue-gray with reddish spots. The rest of the underside of the body is light red-brown and evenly striated black-brown. The beak is black-brown. The iris, legs and feet are colored as in the adult males.
Distribution area and habitat
The Arfak ray bird of paradise occurs exclusively on the Vogelkop and the Wandammen Peninsula in western New Guinea. Among other things, he settles here in the eponymous Arfak Mountains , in which over 320 species of birds occur. The altitude distribution of the Arfak bird of paradise ranges from 1100 to 1900 meters above sea level, where it occurs in mountain forests. He shows a preference for forest areas with numerous young, tall tree saplings and a crown area that is still light.
Way of life
Arfak radiation paradise birds eat fruits and seeds, including the seeds of nutmegs and figs. They have been observed holding larger fruits with one foot and tearing pieces out of the fruit. Golden breasted pigeons and pheasant pigeons come to the males' courtship grounds to eat the fallen pieces. Since they can occasionally be seen examining the bark and epiphytes, Arfak's radiation paradise birds will certainly also eat arthropods .
Arfak Radiant Birds of Paradise occasionally join flocks of birds from different species. They were together with the Wallace Brillenvogel ( Zosterops atrifons ) with species of the genus Sericornis , with the Mohr Fächerschwanz ( Rhipidura astra ), the brown ear Dickkopf , the Goldstirn thick head . the round-tailed drongo ( Chaetorhynchus papuensis ) and the spot- bellied honeyeater ( Melipotes gymnops ).
Reproduction
Like the vast majority of birds of paradise, the Arfak ray bird of paradise is polygynous , which means that the male mates with several females if possible. The respective female raises the offspring alone.
Courtship area
The courtship of the Arfak bird of paradise takes place on the ground, even if it is otherwise a species of bird that lives in the treetop area. The courtship grounds are deep in the forest and are usually overshadowed by tall trees. They only have a diameter of one to one and a half meters. Similar to the blue-naped bird of paradise , which occurs further east of New Guinea, the males clean the courtship grounds from leaves and similar organic materials lying on the ground. When choosing a suitable courtship area, it is important to have one or two low branches located horizontally above the cleaned courtship area. The owner of the courtship area tolerates the presence of other males as long as they remain seated on one of these horizontal branches. On the other hand, foreign males who come to the floor of the courtship area are driven away.
Courtship
At dusk, the male begins to fly through the treetops near his courtship area while shouting loudly. If he encounters females, he tries to drive them towards his courtship area. The few scientists who have been able to observe the Arfak bird of paradise living in the wild have come to the conviction that the courtship owner only begins his courtship when several females are present. Nevertheless, a regular rhythm could be determined: the males courted mainly between 6.30 and 8 a.m. and between 1 and 3 p.m.
At the beginning of the courtship, the male begins to hop sideways to and fro on one of the branches about 60 centimeters above the courtship area. It opens and closes its wings repeatedly and very quickly (so-called "wing flicks") and ruffles its tail plumage. Occasionally it pauses briefly to clean its beak on the branch. Then he hops down to the actual courtship area, continues the wing flicks and begins to peck on the ground. During these movements, the silvery triangle on the forehead is particularly clearly displayed. This ritualized cleaning of the courtship area, which is also found as a courtship element in the blue-naped bird of paradise, then turns into a stiff posture where it crosses its courtship area several times. This is followed by a courtship dance in which both the iridescent plumage and the equally iridescent elongated head feathers are shown to advantage. This phase does not follow a strict sequence. Males break them off at any time to try to mate with one of the females present.
pairing
The mating takes place in the branches and not on the ground. Sitting on a branch, the female initiates mating by taking a crouching position, flapping her wings slightly and opening her beak wide. The pairing only takes two to three seconds. The male holds the neck feather of the female in its beak. After mating, the male flies into one of the surrounding treetops while shouting loudly. The other individuals that are at the courtship area usually also fly up.
Nest, clutch and rearing of the young
While the courtship of the Arrak bird of paradise has been relatively well documented, like the Berlepsch bird of paradise, neither a nest nor a clutch has been scientifically described. Other species of the bird of paradise have bowl-shaped nests. Their clutch consists of an egg.
Hybrids with other birds of paradise
The tendency of birds of paradise to cross with other species in their family was already described by Anton Reichenow at the beginning of the 20th century and thus almost earlier than for any other bird family. The discovery of these hybrids occasionally means that they were initially described as a separate species. The Loborhampus ptilorlus described on a single type specimen is definitely a cross between the long-tailed paradigalla and the Arfak-ray bird of paradise . The Parotia duivenbodei is also a cross between the Arfak ray bird of paradise and the collar bird of paradise .
Trivia
- The hut gardener , an arbor-building species from the bowerbird family , very often imitates the calls of the Arfak radiant paradise bird .
- Arfak birds of paradise have been kept in UK, Swedish and US zoos.
- The Italian explorer Luigi Maria d'Albertis reported in 1880 that he had eaten the meat of four Arfak radiation paradise birds. This is considered remarkable because the flesh of the birds of paradise is commonly described as being so unpleasantly bitter that it is considered inedible.
- Large parts of the courtship display of the Arfak ray bird of paradise were described by the Swedish zoologist Sten Bergman in the 1950s . Bergman lived in New Guinea for two years and during this time kept six males of the Arfak Radiant Bird of Paradise, in which he could observe the courtship behavior more closely. His observations were confirmed by film recordings in the 1990s.
literature
- Bruce M. Beehler , Thane K. Pratt: Birds of New Guinea; Distribution, Taxonomy, and Systematics. Princeton University Press, Princeton 2016, ISBN 978-0-691-16424-3 .
- Clifford B. Frith, Bruce M. Beehler : The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1998, ISBN 0-19-854853-2 .
- Eugene M McCarthy: Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006, ISBN 0-19-518323-1 .
Web links
Single receipts
- ↑ Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 277.
- ↑ Handbook of the Birds of the World on the Arfak Radiant Bird of Paradise , accessed on July 23, 2017
- ↑ a b c d Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 279.
- ↑ a b c Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 278.
- ↑ Papua Expeditions: Arfak Mountains , accessed September 2, 2017.
- ↑ a b Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 280.
- ↑ a b Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 281.
- ↑ a b c d Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 282.
- ^ McCarthy: Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World . P. 228.
- ^ McCarthy: Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World . P. 230.
- ↑ Clifford B. Frith, Dawn. W. Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-854844-3 . P. 293.