King's Bird of Paradise
| King's Bird of Paradise | ||||||||||||
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King's Bird of Paradise ( Cicinnurus regius ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Cicinnurus regius | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The king's bird of paradise ( Cicinnurus regius ) is a species of bird from the family of birds of paradise (Paradisaeidae). It is considered the smallest bird of paradise and is found in the lowlands of New Guinea and some neighboring islands. The King's Bird of Paradise has a very large distribution area and is classified by the IUCN as a species that is currently not threatened in its population. There are two subspecies.
description
The sexual dimorphism is very pronounced in the King's Bird of Paradise, as in many birds of paradise. The males have a very colorful plumage while the females are inconspicuously colored brown. The males reach a height of 16 centimeters without the elongated middle control spring pair, whereas the females are 19 centimeters tall. The males weigh between 63 and 65 grams, the females weigh between 38 and 58 grams.
In the male, the head as well as the throat, back and wings are intensely vermilion. The feathers of the coat are elongated and form a collar. The upper plumage is very shiny and can form white highlights in certain light conditions. The breast is divided by an emerald green, shiny metallic cross band. Above each eye there is a patch of the same metallic green. The underside is white. The two middle, narrow tail feathers protrude from the other feathers of the tail. They are twelve centimeters long and end in a spiral-shaped flag. The king's bird of paradise has gray and green tufts of feathers under its wings, which it can unfold into fans during courtship. The beak is yellow, the ridge of the beak is slightly raised and very narrow. The feet and legs are cobalt blue.
The females and young birds are darker and less conspicuously colored. Their plumage is brown on the top of the body and brown and white stripes on the underside. The beak of the females is pale yellow and young animals are rather dark in color. The legs and feet are darker in the females than in the males.
Distribution, subspecies and habitat
The King's Bird of Paradise is widespread in New Guinea and occurs from the westernmost tip of the Vogelkop to the eastern tip of this island. It occurs on islands that border directly on the coast of New Guinea. These include the Arus archipelago , where it was collected in the 19th century by Alfred Russel Wallace , among others . The archipelago is located about 150 km south of New Guinea in the Arafura Sea . The King's Bird of Paradise is also found on Misool and Salawati. This island is located in the Raja Ampat archipelago and southwest of the New Guinea Vogelkop Peninsula. The range also includes the island of Yapen , an island in the Cenderawasih Bay .
In the comparatively large distribution area for a bird of paradise, two subspecies are distinguished:
- Cicinnurus regius coccineifrons Rothschild , 1896 - The subspecies occurs in the north of New Guinea and inhabits an area next to the island of Yapen, which extends from the east coast of the Cenderawasih-Buch to the Ramu River.
- Cicinnurus regius regius ( Linnaeus , 1758 ) - The nominate form occurs on Salawati, Mitsoll and the Aru Islands as well as on New Guinea, where it is only replaced by the subspecies Cicinnurus regius coccineifrons in the north of the island .
The King's Bird of Paradise only inhabits forests in lowlands and low altitudes. It colonizes rainforests, monsoon and gallery forests. It is not only dependent on primary forest, but also occurs in secondary forest. Its height distribution ranges from sea level to high altitudes of 950 meters. However, it is rarely found above 300 to 400 meters in altitude. In the higher elevations, the habitat of the King's Bird of Paradise overlaps with that of the Sickle-Tailed Bird of Paradise .
The King's Bird of Paradise is an extremely common bird. Up to 22 males were counted in an area of 100 hectares of primary forest with old trees.
Way of life
The male of the king bird of paradise lives mostly solitary . The females, on the other hand, occasionally join forces with other songbird species to form small mixed groups. In males this only happens when they move along his territory. The squads they join often include the magnificent bird of paradise and other representatives of the bird of paradise family. The royal bird of paradise feeds on fruits and arthropods .
Reproduction
The King's Bird of Paradise is polygynous , meaning that the male mates with large numbers of females whenever possible. The female raises the offspring alone.
Courtship area
The males occupy courtship areas. The distribution of these mating sites in the respective habitat is variable. There are males whose courtship area is far from those of other males. In other areas these are close together. Studies show, however, that the courtship grounds of two males are often 45 to 90 meters apart. These courtship areas are in turn between 150 and 530 meters away from those of the next two males. Frith and Beehler describe this system as a mixture between a single courtship area and the gathering of males at a lek , as is characteristic, for example, of the Stephanie magpie . The males spend a lot of time in the immediate vicinity of their courtship area, significantly more than is the case, for example, with the Raggi bird of paradise . A male also briefly tolerates the presence of another male near his courtship area, but follows it very closely. Direct aggression does not occur. However, by shouts and a forward-facing body position, he indicates his discomfort at the intrusion of the other male.
Courtship
Like many other birds of paradise, the king's bird of paradise has very spectacular courtship behavior. The courtship repertoire includes spreading the white belly feathers and wings as well as raising the sickle-like tail feathers.
One of the most conspicuous behaviors that have not been observed in other birds of paradise is an almost vertical rise, whereby the male sings during the rise and then abruptly falls back to the ground. This courtship behavior has been compared with that of a skylark on various occasions . Another courtship behavior is jumping up along almost vertical branches, in which he turns his body in the opposite direction with each hop. Similar courtship behavior has also been described for the Raggi bird of paradise and the red bird of paradise , both of which belong to the genus of the actual birds of paradise . The other mating repertoire of the King's Bird of Paradise includes rapid tremors with the open wings and a ruffling of the tail plumage, with the rolled up ends of the pair of control feathers hovering over the body. It also hangs upside down on the branches, above the branches only the rolled-up ends of the middle control spring pair can be seen. The sequence of the individual courtship phases has not yet been conclusively investigated. However, the following sequence has already been observed:
- Arch-shaped spreading of the wings (so-called "wing-cupping"). The head is tilted towards one of the wings. When viewed from the front, the curved edges facing the viewer almost form a semicircle with the head of the bird sitting on a branch tilted downwards to the side.
- The wings are spread horizontally to the side, the underside of the wing faces the ground.
- The male hangs with his feet on a branch, but the body is held almost horizontally upwards, the wings are spread and point with the underside of the wing upwards. The elongated pair of tail feathers points upwards, so that the rolled up ends are the only ones to be seen above the branch.
- The male hangs upside down on the branch in a posture reminiscent of bats, the wings are ajar. The rolled up ends of the extended pair of control springs are the only ones to be seen above the branch.
Nest, brood and clutch
So far only one nest has been found in the wild, it was in a tree hollow. Even in breeding attempts in captivity, the females showed a clear preference for tree hollows to create their nests. The clutch includes up to two eggs. The female breeds as soon as the first egg is deposited. The breeding season is 17 days. Nestlings raised in captivity left the nest at the age of 14 days, but were previously disturbed by repeated measurements of their weight and their increase in size, so that they probably left the nest earlier than is usual in the wild. Wild fledglings beg their female parent bird for food when they are just one week old.
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 king's bird of paradise only produces natural hybrids with another species from the genus Cicinnurus , namely the sickle-tailed bird of paradise . The French zoologist Jacques Berlioz described a hybrid between the king's bird of paradise and the sickle-tailed bird of paradise as early as 1927. By 2006, a total of 26 males were known that had emerged from such crosses. Females from such crosses look so similar to the female parent bird that it cannot be seen from their external appearance that they have parent birds of two different species.
Keeping in captivity
King birds of paradise are shown comparatively frequently in zoological gardens in Europe, Asia and the United States. However, they are relatively seldom bred, although their breeding is not considered difficult.
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 .
- Thane Pratt & Bruce M Behhler. (2015): Birds of New Guinea. Princeton University Press, Princeton & Oxford, 2nd Edition, ISBN 978-0-691-09563-9 .
- Ernst Sutter & Walter Linsenmaier: Birds of Paradise and Hummingbirds. Pictures from the life of tropical birds . Zurich 1955.
- Alfred Russel Wallace: The Malay Archipelago . Braunschweig 1869.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 407.
- ↑ Thane & Beehler (2015), p. 236
- ↑ Cicinnurus regius in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2010. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2009. Retrieved on 13 September, 2010.
- ↑ a b Thane & Beehler (2015), p. 483
- ↑ Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 410.
- ↑ Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 408.
- ↑ a b Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 416.
- ↑ a b Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 413.
- ↑ Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 414.
- ↑ a b Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 415.
- ^ McCarthy: Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World . P. 228.
- ^ McCarthy: Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World . P. 229.
- ↑ Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 417.