Shield bird of paradise
| Shield bird of paradise | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shield bird of paradise, female |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Ptiloris paradiseus | ||||||||||||
| Swainson , 1825 |
The shield bird of paradise ( Ptiloris paradiseus ) is a species from the genus of the Reifelvögel ( Ptiloris ) within the family of the birds of paradise (Paradisaeidae). It is one of the few species of birds of paradise that belongs exclusively to the avifauna of Australia . Swainson gave the species the epithet paradiseus when it was first described in order to underline the conspicuousness of the iridescent plumage.
The shield bird of paradise is the most southern species of birds of paradise. It lives in temperate and subtropical rainforests, where it feeds on fruits and invertebrates . The magnificent, colorful and loud courtship takes place from call waiting rooms. The males stretch their open wings horizontally forwards until the tips of the feathers almost touch in front of their bodies. The females mate with only a few dominant males. The female is solely responsible for building nests and raising young. No subspecies are distinguished.
The species is classified as not endangered ( least concern ) by the IUCN .
features
With a body length of 27 to 30 centimeters, the shield bird of paradise is one of the medium-sized species of the Reifel birds. Adult males reach an average length of 30 centimeters and weigh between 134 and 155 grams. Females stay slightly smaller with an average body length of 29 centimeters. They weigh between 86 and 112 grams. In both sexes the beak is slightly bent downwards, but in the females the curvature is somewhat more pronounced. There is a pronounced gender dimorphism . It is very similar to the slightly smaller Victoria Bird of Paradise .
male
The male has a black upper plumage, from which the metallic greenish to blue-greenish shiny cap stands out. It extends from the middle of the forehead over the crown to the nape of the neck. The rest of the head, the neck and the top of the body shimmer slightly purple when exposed to certain light. The feathers on the sides of the throat are somewhat elongated and are set up during courtship.
The tail plumage has a metallic green to bluish-green sheen on the upper side. The throat is also black, but has a metallic blue-green shimmering spot. The belly, the rump and the flanks are different from the otherwise black underside of the body, metallic shimmering olive green. The shine is particularly pronounced on the rump.
The beak is black and slightly shorter than that of the females. The inside of the beak is pale yellow, which can be clearly seen in calling birds. The iris is dark brown.
female
In the female, the dark olive-brown head cap extends from the forehead to the back of the neck. It has short, cream-colored lines. The cap is limited by a long, narrow and cream-colored over-eye stripe on each side of the head. A narrow, predominantly cream-colored orbital ring surrounds the eye and forms a small light spot above and below the eye. The sides of the head and the neck are olive-colored with a fine cream-colored dash.
A narrow blackish streak of beard begins at the base of the beak and ends at the level of the cheeks. The chin and throat are cream to isabel in color. The top of the body and the tail are olive colored. The tail plumage is slightly reddish-brown.
The underside of the body is isabel-colored and has a dense pattern of small arrow-shaped drops. They are only missing in the middle of the lower abdomen. The lower area of the flanks and the legs are finely banded across. The tail is pale brown on the underside.
The beak, which is slightly longer than that of the male, is slightly lighter. The iris is dark brown like in the male.
Fledglings
Fledglings resemble females in their first year of life, regardless of gender. In the second year of life, male juveniles can be distinguished from females by their shorter and straighter beak. Females in the second year of life, on the other hand, can no longer be distinguished from adult females.
From the age of three, the subadult males gradually switch to the plumage of the adult males. They initially have a predominantly female plumage, but increasingly show parts of the body with the black plumage of the adult male.
Possible confusion
The shield bird of paradise can hardly be confused with any other bird species in its range. It is the only bird of paradise in the humid rainforests of northeastern New South Wales and southwestern Queensland. The similar Victoria Bird of Paradise occurs only further north in the region of the Atherton Tableland . Even in poor light, it can be easily distinguished from other species due to its size, its comparatively narrow head and the curved beak. The females have a very distant resemblance to the females of the yellow-naped bowerbird . But these have a significantly shorter and straighter beak. However, the green arboreal bird has a similar reputation as the shield bird of paradise.
distribution and habitat
The Shield Bird of Paradise and Victoria Bird of Paradise are the only birds of paradise found exclusively in Australia. Two other species occur in both Australia and New Guinea. The distribution areas of the species do not overlap.
The range of the Shield Bird of Paradise is limited to parts of the Great Dividing Range , a mountain range that stretches from the northeastern tip of Queensland along the entire east coast through New South Wales to Victoria , where it takes a westerly direction and finally to the west of the state at the last foothills of the Grampian Mountains in the vast Australian central plain on the continent of Australia. In this mountain range there is an isolated population in the area of Kroombit Tops National Park , which is the furthest north occurring population. A contiguous distribution area extends from the height of Amamoor National Park in the southeast of the Australian state of Queensland over the Conondale Range to Barrington Tops National Park and Mount Royal National Park in the east of the state of New South Wales.
The shield bird of paradise inhabits mostly subtropical and temperate rainforests. It is also occasionally found in hardwood forests when they border rainforests. In Hartlaub forests, it can be observed especially in the winter months. It typically only occurs at altitudes above 500 meters. It is very rarely seen in lower regions. It is a resident bird in the entire distribution area .
General way of life
Shield Birds of Paradise live solitary or in pairs. Only occasionally do small groups gather in fruit-bearing trees. It is then also associated with other bird species such as bower birds and fruit pigeons. Outside the breeding season, males are occasionally socialized without any aggressiveness between them.
Shield birds of paradise live predominantly in the crown area of trees. They only occasionally look for food on the ground.
food
Shield birds of paradise mainly eat invertebrates, but also fruit and seeds. The long beak is considered an adaptation that makes it easier for them to poke into the cortex and epiphytes. In spite of their smaller body size, the female has a beak around 8 percent longer than the male. This relatively rare phenomenon is considered a sex-specific adaptation because it feeds the nestlings predominantly invertebrates, and females with longer bills are more successful in finding invertebrates.
They find their food mainly in the middle to upper area of tree tops. Very rarely do they come to the ground to look for food. Shield Birds of Paradise are extremely agile birds and climb tree trunks like tree creepers . They also hop from branch to branch while foraging, then use their beak to examine epiphytes and tree bark for insects. Females also occasionally hatch in tree hollows to look for millipedes. When looking for food, they keep their heads against the tree trunk and branches to listen for the noises of insects eating and moving. If they hear the corresponding noises, they quickly peck at the tree bark or the rotting dead wood. Pieces of bark up to a size of 25 by 10 centimeters are torn off and dropped on the ground. The noises they make can often be heard from a little further away. In particular, the parts of the vegetation that they drop on the ground signal the presence of the birds to observers. When looking for food, they often hang upside down from the branches. A shield bird of paradise observed stayed in this position for more than 40 minutes while pecking insects from the tree. They peck at fruits until they fall from the tree or swallow them whole.
Shield birds of paradise do not come to water points, but cover their fluid requirements with the water that collects in branch forks or tree hollows.
Reproduction
The males of the shield bird of paradise are polygynous , that is, they mate with several females. According to the current state of knowledge, the female builds the nest on her own, incubates the clutch on her own and raises the young birds on her own. The males compete for the females by calling from certain fixed hiding places. The mating season falls in the months of August to December, while the breeding season in the period from the end of September to January.
Courtship
The male's courtship behavior consists of three elements, namely calling to attract the attention of females, wooing a female who has gathered near the male's stand guard, and the actual courtship that immediately precedes the mating goes.
During the day, males repeatedly go to their fixed stand waiting areas and call out very loudly. The calling is interrupted by a short phase in which they clean their plumage. When a female approaches, the male begins to stretch its wings horizontally forwards, so that a semicircle is formed in front of its body. The tail plumage is set steeply upwards and the feathers on the belly and flanks are bristled. Occasionally the male also opens his beak and shows the dull yellow inside of the beak, which contrasts strongly with the dark plumage. This initial courtship phase, which increases in intensity the closer the female gets, is occasionally accompanied by hopping up and down on the branch or dribbling, in which the male moves back and forth on the branch with wings spread moved here. If the female gets on the branch, the courtship increases again in intensity. The wings are now stretched forward so far that the wing tips almost touch. The male's head and beak point straight up. The head moves sideways rhythmically. The wings are also moved sideways, in the opposite direction to the head movements. The wings make a rustling noise .
Nest, brood and rearing of the young birds
_(8397137495).jpg)
The breeding biology of the shield bird of paradise has so far only been investigated superficially, since nests are found comparatively rarely.
The nests are built in the tangle of creepers or in the dense growth of epiphytes. It is a large, open shell nest with plant stems, fine twigs, dead leaves and parts of lianas. The edge of the nest is often decorated with parts of fern fronds or with parts of the exuvia , the shed skin, from snakes. Snakeskin from red-bellied black otter , diamond python and death otter have been found . Possibly the laid out snake skin should deter predators. Similar behavior is described for the Victoria bird of paradise .
The clutch usually consists of two eggs. It is not known at what distance the female lays the eggs and whether she starts hatching after the first egg is laid. The breeding season is estimated at 15 to 16 days. It is believed that the nestlings fledged after four weeks.
Shield birds of paradise and people
The range of the shield bird of paradise has narrowed after rainforest was cleared to a greater extent in the lowlands. In the 19th century, the shield bird of paradise was heavily hunted and the hides were exported to London because its feathers were used in the fashion industry as jewelry for hats.
Conflicts with humans arise today because shield birds of paradise invade orchards to eat and eat the fruit there. This is why farmers in Queensland are still given permission to shoot the birds.
literature
- Clifford B. Frith, Bruce M. Beehler : The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1998, ISBN 0-19-854853-2 .
- PJ Higgins, JM Peter and SJ Cowling: Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds: Volume 7 Boatbill to Starlings, Part A: Boatbill to Larks . Oxford University Press, Melbourne 2006, ISBN 978-0-195-55884-5 .
- Eugene M McCarthy: Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006, ISBN 0-19-518323-1 .
Web links
Single receipts
- ↑ a b c Higgins, Peter & Cowling: Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds: Volume 7 Boatbill to Starlings, Part A: Boatbill to Larks . P. 634.
- ↑ Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 328.
- ↑ a b c Handbook of the Birds of the World zum Schild-Paradiesvogell , accessed on April 22, 2017
- ^ Higgins, Peter & Cowling: Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds: Volume 7 Boatbill to Starlings, Part A: Boatbill to Larks . P. 643.
- ↑ a b c d Higgins, Peter & Cowling: Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds: Volume 7 Boatbill to Starlings, Part A: Boatbill to Larks . P. 635.
- ↑ Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 329.
- ↑ a b Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 330.
- ↑ a b c d e Higgins, Peter & Cowling: Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds: Volume 7 Boatbill to Starlings, Part A: Boatbill to Larks . P. 636.
- ^ A b Higgins, Peter & Cowling: Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds: Volume 7 Boatbill to Starlings, Part A: Boatbill to Larks . P. 637.
- ↑ a b c d Higgins, Peter & Cowling: Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds: Volume 7 Boatbill to Starlings, Part A: Boatbill to Larks . P. 638.
- ^ Higgins, Peter & Cowling: Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds: Volume 7 Boatbill to Starlings, Part A: Boatbill to Larks . P. 650.
- ^ Higgins, Peter & Cowling: Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds: Volume 7 Boatbill to Starlings, Part A: Boatbill to Larks . P. 639.