Emperor Bird of Paradise
| Emperor Bird of Paradise | ||||||||||||
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Emperor Birds of Paradise |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Paradisaea guilielmi | ||||||||||||
| Cabanis , 1888 |
The emperor's bird of paradise ( Paradisaea guilielmi ) is a species from the genus of the actual birds of paradise within the family of birds of paradise (Paradisaeidae). It occurs only in a small area in northeast New Guinea. It is one of the so far little explored birds of paradise. What is certain, however, is that the males are courting together in a lek . The females raise the offspring alone.
The species is classified as near threatened by the IUCN . No subspecies are distinguished.
features
Body type and measurements
With a body length of up to 33 centimeters, the emperor's bird of paradise is one of the medium-sized birds of paradise. Including the greatly extended middle pair of control springs, the males even reach an average length of 86 centimeters. The remaining tail plumage measures 10.7 to 12.1 centimeters, so that the middle pair of control feathers, which is 45.5 to 69.3 centimeters long, clearly towers above it. The female, which is smaller than the male with an average body length of 31 centimeters, has tail plumage with a length of 10.1 to 11.7 centimeters. The middle pair of control feathers is not elongated, but has a length of 9.5 to 11.3 centimeters and is thus slightly shorter than the rest of the tail plumage.
The beak of the males is 3.7 to 4.3 centimeters long, with the females the beak is almost the same length with 3.8 to 4.2 centimeters. The males weigh between 250 and 265 grams, the females are slightly lighter at 188 to 250 grams.
male
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The reins , forehead, beard, chin, throat and front breast of the male have dark, dark green plumage and are very iridescent, oily and shiny. With certain incidence of light, parts of the beak area in particular can appear velvety black, while other parts of the head area, on the other hand, appear yellowish-green. The rest of the head, the neck and the coat, on the other hand, are sulfur yellow. The base of the feathers, on the other hand, is red-brown, which can occasionally be seen in the area of the mantle. The lower back, the rump and the top of the tail and the wing covers are dark sepia brown . The middle pair of control springs is extended like a wire.
The dark green of the front breast turns into a dark chestnut brown in the lower breast area. The belly and the rump are gray-brown, the thighs and the under tail-coverts are umbra colored. The greatly elongated flank feathers are pale orange-yellow in the basal area and then turn into white. The flank feathers are partly covered by the elongated chestnut brown feathers on the front sides of the chest.
The bill is chalky blue-gray, the iris is dark red-brown, the legs and feet are pale purple-brown.
female
Reins , forehead, beard, chin, throat and front breast of the female are dark sepia colored. The rest of the head, the neck and the coat are pale yellow. The base of the feathers in these areas of the body, on the other hand, is sepia-colored, which can be seen more clearly than in the male. The rest of the top of the body is sepia brown. The sepia tone of the front breast merges into a walnut brown in the lower breast area. The thighs and the under tail-coverts are sepia brown.
Subadults
Young birds are like the female. Subadult males have a female-like plumage with individual feathers or body parts that correspond to the plumage of the adult male. With increasing age, the proportion of plumage that corresponds to that of the adult male increases until ultimately they only show a few feathers that correspond to the female plumage.
voice
The imperial bird of paradise has a repertoire of calls that is characteristic of the species of the genus True Birds of Paradise . There are similarities in particular to the calls of the Raggi Bird of Paradise and the Little Bird of Paradise . It mainly calls the male.
One of the more frequently audible calls is a series of calls made up of six to eight high syllables that are heard every 0.8 seconds. They are onomatopoeically described as WHU, WHOW, WHOW, WHOW, WHOW, WHOW . The male sits in an upright pose with his head raised and wings closed. Another, widely audible series of calls, usually consisting of five syllables, is called a little faster: The Wuk wau wau wau wau sounds at an interval of 0.6 seconds. It often sounds in a duet with another nearby male. Explosive pop can also be heard at the courtship areas, which is compared to the sound of exploding firecrackers .
Distribution area and habitat
| Huon Peninsula | ||
 The Huon Peninsula viewed from space (false color display) |
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| Geographical location | ||
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| Coordinates | 6 ° 20 ′ 0 ″ S , 147 ° 25 ′ 0 ″ E | |
| Waters 1 | Huongolf ( Solomon Lake ) | |
The emperor's bird of paradise occurs exclusively in northeast New Guinea on the so-called Huon Peninsula . It occurs there in the area of the Saruwaged Mountains , the Finisterre Mountains and the mountain ranges of Rawlinson and Cromwell. Its height distribution ranges from 450 to 1500 meters, but the main focus is between 670 and 1350 meters. In the region come up with Raggi Bird of Paradise , Blue Paradise breast Elster , 's Small Bird of Paradise and Wahnesparadiesvogel birds of paradise several species of the family before.
In the east, the Raggi Bird of Paradise displaces the Kaiser Bird of Paradise, especially at lower altitudes. The same happens in the west of the distribution area.
The habitat of the emperor bird of paradise are mainly forests in the foothills. But it also colonizes remnants of forests that are surrounded by gardens and similar agricultural areas.
Way of life
Emperor birds of paradise prefer to be in the middle of the treetop area. Adult females in particular can often be observed in pairs or in small groups, while the males are solitary. The species is considered to be comparatively less shy and easy to observe. While foraging for food, they are occasionally associated with other species: They have already been brought together with Raggi birds of paradise and magnificent birds of paradise as well as Zosterops species from the spectacled family .
Emperor birds of paradise mainly eat fruit, but their food spectrum also includes arthropods .
Reproduction
The males are polygynous , which means that they mate with as large a number of females as possible. The partners do not enter into a marriage-like relationship after the pairing, but separate again immediately afterwards. The females build the nest on their own and raise the offspring on their own.
The courtship has only been observed a few times in the wild. Both these field observations and the observations in captivity suggest that the males are courting together at a so-called leks (so-called group courtship). During the observations on exposed birds, between 3 and 6 males courted together. The males courted most frequently and intensely in the afternoon. The courtship takes place high up in the trees, they come down to a maximum height of three to six meters above the ground. The males showed a preference for certain trees, but were not limited to these and also used neighboring trees. The males court in each case in individual waiting areas, the courtship activities are often synchronized. As with most polygynous birds of paradise, courtship consists of several elements in which the males present their elongated flank feathers and the elongated middle pair of control feathers, among other things. The courtship is initiated by increasingly louder calls and hopping back and forth between individual branches. The wings are closed and the head and neck stretched upwards so that the green throat plumage is presented. This then turns into a courtship phase in which the wings are opened and closed quickly. You then sit still for a few moments and then hang upside down on one of the branches with flank feathers spread wide. They adopt this position by letting themselves be tipped either forwards or backwards. Sometimes a female approaches in this phase and sits down on the branch in such a way that she sits directly above the upside-down male.
In the vicinity of the Sattelberg, Kaiser birds of paradise court most intensely in the period from January to the beginning of March. In the Boana region, Papua New Guinea, however, increased courtship activity was observed, especially in the months of July to August.
Emperor bird of paradise and man
Collector
The type specimen was collected in January 1888 on the Sattelberg by the German colonial official, ornithologist and plant collector Carl Hunstein . Hunstein, who died two months later in a tsunami triggered by a volcanic eruption , discovered several species of birds of paradise , including the Emperor's Bird of Paradise and the narrow-tailed sickle hop ( Epimachus meyeri ) named after the German scientist Adolf Bernhard Meyer , the Stephanie's paradise magpie ( Astrapia stephaniae ) and the blue bird of paradise ( Paradisaea rudolphi ).
Dedication name
The specific epithet of the emperor's bird of paradise ( Paradiesaea gulielmi ) is reminiscent of the German emperor Wilhelm II. Guilielmi is the medieval, Latinized form of Wilhelm. Jean Louis Cabanis, the first describer and director of the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, followed a custom that was widespread at the time. Stephanie-Paradieselster , Viktoria-Paradiesvogel , Helena-Paradiesvogel and Carola-Paradiesvogel also honor representatives of European royal houses. In species such as Blue Bird of Paradise ( Parasidornis Rudolphi ) and pennants carrier ( Pteridophora Albertine ) this is similar to the Emperor Bird of Paradise only on specific epithet recognizable.
Keeping in captivity
Emperor Birds of Paradise have been kept at Taronga Zoo , Sydney. The more detailed knowledge about the courtship behavior of the males comes from this zoo as well as the
Postures in the Baiyer River Sanctuary .
Trivia
The ornithologist Helmuth Otto Wagner described in the 86th volume of the Journal for Ornithology in 1938 that he had observed a synchronized courtship display in two males of the Emperor Bird of Paradise kept in the Taronga Zoo, Sydney. The report was provided by the journal's editor with the note that in 1924 the German colonial officer Hermann Detzner reported that he saw five or six males of the emperor's bird of paradise in New Guinea hanging upside down from a branch. They would have assumed this posture by slowly leaning backwards. As early as 1924, the German ornithologist Erwin Stresemann considered the observation so bizarre that he strongly doubted it. The American ornithologists Ernst Mayr and Ernest Thomas Gilliard expressed similar doubts in 1931 and 1969. The ornithologist Robert DW Draffan was able to confirm the observation in 1978.
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
- ↑ Handbook of the Birds of the World on the Kaiser Bird of Paradise , accessed on October 10, 2017
- ↑ a b Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 482.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 483.
- ↑ a b c Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 484.
- ↑ a b c Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 485.
- ↑ Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 486.
- ↑ Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 487.
- ↑ Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 488.
- ^ HO Wagner: Observations on the courtship of the bird of paradise Paradisaea guilielmi , Journal for Ornithology, Volume 86, pp. 550–553.
- ↑ RDW Draffan: Group display of the galleries of Germany Bird-of-paradise Paradisaea guilielmi in the wild. Emu, Volume 78, 1978, pp. 157 - p. 159