Stephanie paradise
| Stephanie paradise | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stephanie Heaven, portrayed by Richard Bowdler Sharpe |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Astrapia stephaniae | ||||||||||||
| ( Finsch & AB Meyer , 1885) |
The Stephanie-Paradieselster ( Astrapia stephaniae ), also called Stephanie-Astrapia or Princess-Stephanie-Bird of Paradise , is a species of bird from the family of the birds of paradise (Paradisaeidae). It occurs exclusively in the east of New Guinea. It is one of the birds of paradise in which the male has a greatly elongated middle pair of control feathers. The German name and the specific epithet were given in honor of Stephanie of Belgium , at the time of the first scientific description of the Crown Princess of Austria-Hungary .
The IUCN classifies the stock situation of the Stephanie-Paradieselster as safe ( least concern ). There are two subspecies.
description
Body type and measurements
The males of the Stephanie paradise magpie reach a body length of 37 centimeters without the extended middle pair of control springs . Including these long tail feathers, they have a body length of 84 centimeters. The middle pair of control springs has a length between 56.5 and 72.7 centimeters. The females also have very long tail plumage. They have a body length of up to 53 centimeters, of which the tail plumage accounts for between 26.8 and 36.2. The beak is 3.4 to 4 centimeters long. They weigh between 123 and 156 grams.
male
The entire head is velvety black with a very intense metallic blue-green sheen. Depending on the incidence of light, this gloss can also be cobalt blue or purple and magenta in color. The feathers on the sides of the head are elongated and form small tufts of feathers on the sides of the head. The upper side of the body is velvet black from the coat to the upper tail ceilings with a slightly more matt bronze-colored shimmer. The wings are blackish on the upper side, with the elytra in particular shining purple to magenta. In the arm and hand wings, this gloss is limited to the outer flags. The extended pair of control springs is velvety black with a dark purple to magenta sheen and striking white spring shafts on the basal third. The remaining control springs are black-brown with a slightly copper-colored sheen.
The throat shines as intensely as the head plumage. It then changes abruptly into the velvety black breast plumage, which in certain light conditions can also shine bronze. The dark chest is bordered by a narrow, strongly copper-colored, shiny reddish-brown band. The rest of the underside of the body up to the rump are copper-red and dark green transversely banded, the plumage shines intensely. The tail plumage is black-brown on the underside, only the middle pair of control feathers is glossy black. The beak is glossy black, the iris is deep dark brown, the legs and feet are gray-violet.
In their first year of life, the males resemble the adult females, but already have a more intense shine on the neck. In sexually mature males, the gloss first develops on the forehead, crown and chin before it can be seen on the entire head.
female
The entire head and neck are dark black-brown with a metallic bronze-colored shimmer, which can also appear bluish with certain incidence of light. The rest of the top of the body is matt black-brown. The tail plumage is brownish black. The middle pair of control springs also has white spring shafts, which can only be seen on one sixth of the spring length.
The chin and chest are deep brown-black with little sheen. On the belly, this brown turns into an ocher and then into a cinnamon-colored shade that is narrowly banded across black.
Possible confusion
The male of the Stephanie-Paradieselster is unmistakable due to the conspicuous plumage and the elongated middle control spring pair. In poor lighting conditions, the female with its dark plumage and long tail can be confused with both the broad-tailed paradise hop and the narrow- tailed paradise hop . In the west of the distribution area of the Stephanie paradise magpie, there are also natural hybrids between this species and the narrow-tailed paradise magpie , which also makes it difficult for the females to reliably identify.
Distribution area and habitat
The distribution area of the Stephanie magpie is eastern New Guinea. The two subspecies occur in the east in the following mountains and ridges:
- A. s. feminina Neumann , 1922 - Schrader Mountains , Bismarck Mountains and the watershed between Sepik and Wahgi .
- A. s. stephaniae ( Finsch & AB Meyer , 1885) - From the volcano Doma Peaks, Hagengebirge and Mount Giluwe in a south-easterly direction to the Owen Stanley mountains .
Hybridization with the silk ribbon paradise elster occurs west of the Hagengebirge. The subspecies Astrapia stephaniae ducalis described by Ernst Mayr in 1931 is now considered a synonym for the nominate form .
The habitat of the Stephanie paradise elsters are mountain and sub-alpine forests. It is also found at forest edges, in forests with selective logging, and in forests with individual areas with secondary forest .
Way of life
The Stephanie-Paradieselster is mostly in the upper forest area. It flies with rapid wing beats, which is interrupted by short gliding phases. Stephanie paradise stars looking for food behave inconspicuously, but do not show any noticeable shyness. Both ornithologists and the indigenous population of the range of the Stephanie paradise magpie have observed that individuals in the plumage of a female can be observed more frequently than the males at the edge of the forest or even in the gardens of the indigenous population. Males, on the other hand, are more likely to be found in the interior of the forest.
The diet consists of fruits, arthropods and probably small vertebrates like frogs and skinks. It probably covers most of its nutritional needs with fruits, the proportion of vegetable food is estimated at 85 percent. However, it is most frequently observed when it searches the branches in the middle and upper treetop area for animal food. The Stephanie-Paradieselster looks for food alone or in small, loosely socialized groups of two to three individuals. Occasionally it also joins troops of other songbird species, mostly species such as the broad-tailed paradise hop or furrow bird .
Reproduction
Stephanie Paradiesstern are polygyn : between two and five males courting females at so-called leks , one male can mess with several females and the female alone raises the offspring. As is often the case with bird species in which the not yet sexually mature males have plumage that closely resembles the adult female, it is not always certain whether the birds present with a plumage that corresponds to that of an adult female are actually females .
Courtship
In the case of the leks that were examined in the Bismarck Mountains, the distance between the individual leks was 1.5 to 2 kilometers, which means that they were out of sight and hearing distance from each other. A single lek comprises four to seven trees about 25 meters high with large, steeply rising branches at a height of 17 to 18 meters above the ground. These branches have no side branches, no foliage and no epiphytes, at least over a large area. The main courtship of the males takes place on one or two of these branch areas. The football fields are used at times for several years.
Males show courtship in the period from July to September shortly after dawn at the courtship areas. On average, three males gather and spend an average of two hours at the courtship area, even if they leave it for a while to eat. As soon as a male starts courting, the males sitting in the same tree also start courting. The males sitting in other trees then shout loudly, hop around in the branches or fly into another tree.
During courtship, the males raise their head and neck plumage and hop back and forth between two stand guard. The body is kept horizontal. Frith and Beehler differentiate between two intensity levels in courtship. In the slower courtship, the male hops between two places on the branch, but pauses briefly on each place. The long pair of control springs swings under him. In quick courtship, the male hops at high speed between two places on the branch that are about 1.5 meters apart. It doesn't pause, there are nine to 10 hops for about four seconds. Due to the rapid movement, the long pair of control springs blows almost horizontally behind him. This strenuous courtship has only been observed a few times so far. The males show their courtship even when no females are around.
In another observation, two males and three Stephanie paradise stars in female plumage were sitting in a tree. The larger of the males first pursued a single female, while the other male and the others remain seated in the tree. After the larger male bared for five minutes, it first chased the second male away. The other two individuals, believed to be females, flew away. The remaining male mated again 10 minutes before the female before mating.
Nest, clutch and growing up of the young birds
So far only a few nests have been found and scientifically described. Two nests were located in a tree at a height of 10 meters. One of the nests was partially covered by creepers. A third nest was found in creepers at a height of 3.8 meters above the ground. The nests were made of large leaves and parts of creepers. They were 16 to 19 centimeters in outer diameter and 4 to 8.9 centimeters high. The diameter of the actual nest bowl was 11.5 centimeters. The interior of the nest was covered with small leaves, roots and bits of bark.
The clutch size has not yet been studied much. The clutches found so far, which certainly only come from a Stephanie paradise star and not from a possible constitution between a Stephanie and a narrow-tailed paradise magpie, only contained a single egg. This was pink and had - as is typical for actual birds of paradise - elongated dark brown spots and a few small spots. The incubation period is only known from captivity: there the incubation period was 22 days. The female feeds the nestling with choked up food. Like the breeding season, the nestling season is only known from captivity. In one successful rearing attempt in the 1960s and 1970s, the nestling left the nest after 26 to 28 days.
Stephanie paradise and human
hunt
The Stephanie-Paradieselster was (and is?) Hunted by the indigenous population of its area of distribution because of its plumage. The hunt takes advantage of the fact that the males gather at traditional courtship areas. The feathers are made into traditional head and body jewelry. The hides of birds of paradise are an important commodity in New Guinea, with which the bride price is also paid.
attitude
Seven Stephanie birds of paradise were imported to Scotland in 1909. How long they could be kept there is not known. Three more Stephanie birds of paradise were imported from London Zoo in the mid-1920s. One of the birds was kept for eight years. The birds were described as trusting. There were breeding successes with Stephanie star of paradise in Great Britain as well as in the United States of America.
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 .
- Otto Finsch, Adolf Bernhard Meyer: Birds from New Guinea, mostly from the Alps region on the southeast slope of the Owen Stanley Mountains (Horseshoe Mountains 7000-8000 'high), collected by Karl Hunstein. I. Paradiseidae . In: Journal for the entire ornithology . tape 2 , 1885, p. 369-391 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
- Oscar Neumann: New Forms from the Papuan and Polynesian Islands . In: Negotiations of the Ornithological Society in Bavaria . tape 15 , no. 2 , 1922, p. 234-237 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
- Ernst Mayr: The birds of the Saruwaged and Herzog Mountains (NE New Guinea) . In: Messages from the Zoological Museum in Berlin . tape 17 , 1931, ISSN 0373-8493 , p. 639-723 .
Single receipts
- ↑ a b Handbook of the Birds of the World on Stephanie's Paradise Elster , accessed on July 10, 2017
- ↑ a b c Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 266.
- ↑ a b c Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 268.
- ↑ a b Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 267.
- ↑ Oscar Neumann, p. 236.
- ↑ Otto Finsch u. a., p. 378.
- ↑ Ernst Mayr, p. 711.
- ↑ a b Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 269.
- ↑ a b c Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 270.
- ↑ Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 271.
- ↑ Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 272.
- ↑ Frith & Beehler: The Birds of Paradise - Paradisaeidae . P. 273.