Fan paradise
| Fan paradise | ||||||||||||
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Fan paradise |
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| Astrapia nigra | ||||||||||||
| ( Gmelin , 1788) |
The fan paradise ( Astrapia nigra ), also called fan astrapia or black-throated bird of paradise , is a species of bird from the family of birds of paradise (Paradisaeidae). It occurs exclusively in a very small mountain area in western New Guinea. It is one of the birds of paradise in which the male has a greatly elongated middle pair of control feathers. This can reach a length of up to 75 centimeters. The way of life of this species, which occurs in an inaccessible area, has so far been little researched.
The IUCN classifies the existence of the fan paradise magpie as safe ( least concern ). No subspecies are distinguished.
description
Body type and measurements
The males of the fan paradise magpie reach a body length of 60 centimeters without the elongated middle control feathers, of which the tail plumage has a length of 23.3 to 27.2 centimeters except for the extended middle control feathers. Including these long tail feathers, the males have a body length of up to 76 centimeters, the pair of control feathers has a length of 51 to 75.6 centimeters.
The females also have very long tail plumage, in which the middle pair of control feathers is also elongated. Without the extended, middle pair of control springs, they can reach a body length of 50 centimeters. The normal tail plumage accounts for 23 to 30 centimeters of this. The middle pair of control springs reaches a length of 29 to 33 centimeters. The beak has a length of 3.9 to 4.3 centimeters. Weight data for adult birds are not available.
male
The entire head is velvety black with a very intense metallic blue or bronze to purple sheen on the sides of the head and on the top of the head. The feathers in the neck are also noticeably elongated and overlap like scales. They have a metallic, yellow-greenish, blue-violet to mauve-colored shine. The top of the body is sooty brown-black with a bronze-colored shimmer from the coat to the upper tail covers. The wings are black-brown on the upper side and have a purple sheen, which is also magenta or bluish when exposed to certain light. The tail plumage is black-brown and shimmers blue-violet to magenta. The shimmer is particularly pronounced on the middle pair of control springs.
The streak of beard, chin and throat are black with blue to magenta shimmers. The feathers on the front breast are slightly elongated and very dense. They are velvet black with a matt copper-colored sheen. They are finished with an intensely shiny bronze-colored band that runs along the sides of the chest to behind the eyes. In certain lighting conditions, this band can also shimmer lime green. The rest of the underside of the body is dark green with very shiny feather tips, so that this part of the body looks scaly. The tail plumage is black-brown with a slight sheen on the underside. The beak is glossy black, the iris is deep dark brown, the legs and feet are blackish brown.
In their first year of life, the males resemble the adult females.
female
The entire head and neck are black with a slight metallic blue sheen. The upper side of the body is black-brown from the coat to the upper tail-covers with a shiny blue sheen on the neck and upper coat. The wing covers are brownish black on the upper side, the arm and hand wings are ocher with a slightly different shade of brown on the outer edges of the feathers. The tail plumage is dark black-brown on the upper side. The underside of the body is matt black-brown. The part of the body from the stomach to the under tail covers is a little lighter. From the chest to the rump there are pale brown horizontal stripes that are very fine on the chest and become increasingly wider towards the rump.
distribution and habitat
The distribution area is limited to the Vogelkop , a large peninsula in northwest New Guinea in the Indonesian province of Papua Barat . All observations of this paradise are from the Arfak Mountains . There is only one observation from the Tamrau Mountains, which are separated from the Arfak Mountains by the Kebar Valley. The fan paradise occurs here at altitudes between 1700 and 2250 meters. It colonizes the mountain rainforests there .
Way of life
The fan paradise is one of the so far little explored birds of paradise. Almost nothing is known about their lifestyle - until the end of the 20th century it was considered the least explored paradise. It has been observed to eat fruits from plants belonging to the screw tree-like order . However, their diet is probably like that of other paradise stars. For the narrow-tailed paradise magpie and the Stephanie magpie, it is certain that although they mainly feed on fruits, they also eat invertebrates.
Like the diet, reproduction has not yet been studied. Presumably, like other paradise stars, it is polygynous, that is, a male mates with several females if possible. The female raises alone and without the support of a partner bird.
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 .