Red bird of paradise
| Red bird of paradise | ||||||||||||
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Two males of the Red Bird of Paradise |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Paradisaea rubra | ||||||||||||
| Daudin , 1800 |
The red bird of paradise ( Paradisaea rubra ), also known as the red bird of paradise , is a species from the genus of the actual birds of paradise within the family of birds of paradise (Paradisaeidae). Unlike most of the birds of paradise, it does not occur in New Guinea , but on islands off the northwest coast of New Guinea. Little is known about its life in the wild. Most observations on courtship behavior, food acquisition and rearing of the young birds have so far been made on individuals who were kept in various zoos.
The species is classified as near threatened by the IUCN . No subspecies are distinguished. The red bird of paradise is, together with the lavender bird of paradise, a sister form of the great bird of paradise.
features
Body type and measurements
The red bird of paradise is one of the medium-sized birds of paradise with a body length of up to 33 centimeters. Including the greatly extended middle pair of control springs, the males even reach an average length of 72 centimeters. The rest of the tail plumage measures 11.4 to 12.3 centimeters, so that the middle pair of control feathers, which is 47.8 to 76.5 centimeters long, clearly towers above it. The female, which is shorter than the male with an average body length of 30 centimeters, has tail plumage between 10.5 and 12.1 centimeters in length. The middle pair of control feathers is not lengthened, but has a length of 10.2 to 11.7 centimeters and is thus slightly shorter than the rest of the tail plumage.
The beak of the males is 3.1 to 3.9 centimeters long, in the females the beak is almost the same length with 3.3 to 3.9 centimeters. The males weigh between 158 and 224 grams, the females are slightly lighter at 115 to 208 grams.
male
The male's reins , forehead, beard, chin and throat have dark emerald green plumage and are very iridescent. With certain incidence of light, these areas can even appear velvety black. The feathers above the eye are slightly elongated and slightly arched. The rest of the head, the nape of the neck and the upper and middle areas of the mantle are pale orange-yellow. The lower part of the coat is amber and has white highlights in certain lighting conditions. The rest of the back is russet, the rump and the upper tail-coverts are pale orange-yellow. The upper side of the wings including the alula and the large wing coverts as well as the upper side of the tail feathers are strong red-brown. Only the middle pair of control springs is modified to a 3 to 4 millimeter wide, black spring flag.
The upper chest is orange-yellow. The rest of the underside of the body is sepia-colored with a slightly lighter middle of the abdomen and a hazel-brown rump, hazel-brown thighs and under-tail-covers. The elongated flank feathers are carmine red with whitish feather tips.
The bill is yellow to pale greenish, the iris is dark red-brown, the legs and feet are blue-gray.
female
Reins , forehead, beard, chin and throat of the female are sepia colored. The back of the head, the nape of the neck and the throat are brownish yellow with a slight orange tinge. The coat is a little darker. The rest of the top of the body including the wings and tail feathers are pale sepia colored. Only the small wing coverts and the edges of the large wing coverts are a little more intense yellow. The upper tail coverts are amber with a light orange tone.
The front breast is brownish-yellow with an orange tinge. The rest of the underside of the body is walnut brown. The middle pair of control feathers is narrower and more pointed than the rest of the tail plumage.
Subadults
Subadult males initially resemble females and only have individual feathers of the adult male plumage. With increasing age they show the plumage of the adult males to an increasing degree. The full plumage of a male is shown only at the age of five years at the earliest. The middle pair of control feathers, which in adult males differ significantly from the rest of the tail plumage, is initially only slightly longer, narrower and more pointed than the rest of the tail plumage in subadult males. It only gradually develops into the narrow feather flags that are typical of adult males.
voice
The calls of the males are widely audible in the early morning and late afternoon. The most common sounds are clear, repeated wak syllables that can be heard one to four times per second. They are heralded by initially guttural work - wok wak wak wak wak wach wach - episodes that start slowly and then become very loud and widely audible. Red birds of paradise also give off a croak reminiscent of ravens and crows , as well as weep tones that have a pathetic effect on humans. The male's courtship sounds also include beak clicking and clicking sounds, which can be heard especially at the height of the courtship.
Distribution area and habitat
The red bird of paradise is one of the typical island endemics within the bird of paradise family. Its distribution is limited to some islands of the Raja Amat archipelago in the Indo-Pacific west of New Guinea . The main area of distribution are the islands of Waigeo and Batanta . At 3,155 km², Wagen is the largest of the four main islands in the archipelago and is located in the north of the archipelago. The interior of the island is covered by largely untouched rainforest. At 453 km², Batanta is significantly smaller than Waigeo, but is also one of the main islands of the archipelago. Between the two islands lies the island of Gam , which is only separated from the double island of Waigeo by the very narrow Kabuystraße . This island is also populated by the red bird of paradise. The species is also found on two very small islands Gemien and Saonek, which are to the west and south of Waigeo.
The red bird of paradise occurs on these islands, which have elevations up to 1000 meters above sea level from the lowlands to at altitudes of 600 meters.
The species colonizes rainy weather in the lowlands and the foothills on the islands. Red birds of paradise are the only representatives of the genus of actual birds of paradise that colonize these islands. However, among other things, the bare-headed bird of paradise , which belongs to a different genus, occurs on the islands . Birds of Paradise are fundamentally a family with more common hybrids between the species in the family. However, hybrids are not known for the red bird of paradise.
Way of life
Details of the way of life of this bird of paradise species are mainly known from captive individuals. With a group of 11 red birds of paradise, which were kept in a large and densely planted aviary in Singapore, they sunbathed again and again for a long time. They assumed a comparatively unusual posture: the wing that was exposed to the sun was left hanging, while they turned their raised head away from the sun.
Red birds of paradise eat fruits and insects. Already Alfred Russel Wallace , who observed these birds on Waigeo in the second half of the 19th century, described that when foraging for food they often came down to the ground and moved along the trunks in a way that would be reminiscent of woodpeckers. The red birds of paradise kept in Singapore could regularly be observed as they searched the branches and twigs for insects. They chopped off the bark from dead branches and examined the soft wood with their beak. Dead bamboo leaves and other foliage were carried from the ground to a raised hide, held there with one foot and then examined with the beak. The birds also climbed along thinner branches and pecked insects from the leaves there. One individual could be observed hanging upside down from one of the thinner outer branches in order to snatch and eat small buds from another branch.
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.
Courtship
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 10 males courted together. The males court each other in individual waiting areas. The courtship consists of several elements in which the males present their elongated flank feathers and the elongated middle control spring pair. Courtship includes, among other things, jumping back and forth between two neighboring branches, where the males flutter with the flights in a butterfly-like manner. With other courtship elements, they hang upside down on branches, the elongated pair of black control springs then towering over the elongated crimson flank springs.
Rearing the young birds
Information about the rearing of the young birds is only available from captivity observations. In the wild, not even the nests of this species have been found. The clutch consists of one or two eggs. Only the female breeds, the breeding season is between 14 and 16 days. A female kept by the New York Zoological Society laid a total of 32 eggs over a period of 3 years, the eggs were removed from the female after each 14 days of incubation and further incubated in an incubator. The eggs were always laid between December and June. Of the total of 32, 18 were fertilized and 17 hatched into a nestling.
Females feed the nestling with choked fruit pulp during the first five days of life. Then the female feeds the young bird exclusively animal food, while she mainly eats fruit. Only when the young bird is one month old does it receive not only animal food but also vegetable food. The female keeps the nest clean by swallowing the feces of the young bird. Since no shell remains have yet been found in the nests with hatched young birds, the female probably also eats the eggshells.
Nestlings hatched in captivity had an average hatching weight of 8.3 grams. Hand-raised nestlings gained an average of 3.4 grams a day during the first month of life. The nestlings are initially blind, their eyes open from the 14th day of life. At this point, the quills are also visible. You could fly from the 28th day of life. Shortly afterwards they are able to crouch on the edge of the nest. From around the 60th day of life, the young birds can no longer be distinguished from the maternal parent bird.
Red birds of paradise are more often shown in zoological gardens in Asia. However, the first successes in breeding were American zoos. At the end of the 20th century, a breeding pair from these breeding successes was also loaned to the World Bird Park Walsrode .
Trivia
The Indonesian 20,000 rupee banknote issued between 1976 and 2000 depicts a male red bird of paradise.
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 .
Single receipts
- ↑ Handbook of the Birds of the World on the Red Bird of Paradise , accessed October 9, 2017
- ↑ a b c d Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 475.
- ↑ Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 438.
- ↑ a b c d e Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 476.
- ↑ a b c Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 477.
- ↑ a b Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 478.
- ↑ Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 480.
- ↑ a b Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 481.
- ↑ Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 482.