Bird's Paradise

Ribbon-Tailed Astrapia The Bird of Paradise

One of the most outstanding birds of paradise, the male Ribbon-tailed Astrapia has the longest tail feathers in relation to body size of any bird, over three times the length of its body. The nature most beautiful bird “The Ribbon-Tailed Astrapia” is also recognized as “Shaw Mayer’s Astrapia” (Astrapia Mayeri) can be easily called the bird of paradise. One of the most remarkable birds-of-paradise, the male ribbon-tailed Astrapia has the longest tail feathers in relation to body size of any bird, over three times the length of its body. The ribbon-tailed Astrapia is the most recently discovered bird-of-paradise. This stunning bird is distributed and endemic to subalpine forests in western part of the central highlands of Papua New Guinea. However, similar to other ornamental bird-of-paradise, the male is polygamous.

This species is likely to have a moderately small population within its small range. Hence, the bird is listed as near threatened on the ICUN Red list of Threatened species due to habitat lost and hunted for its plumes. The terrifically long tails of male Ribbon-tailed Astrapia’s sometimes have to pause to untangle their tails before they can fly away not a survival advantage. But the tails also help them to entice females. And by carefully choosing their mates, the females determine which males' genes and what kinds of tails survive to the next generation.

In 1938, the great naturalist Fred Shaw Mayer, discovered the bird, however several believed explorer Jack Hides discovered the bird first, and later on Shaw Mayer became interested in it. The Ribbon-Tailed Astrapia is medium sized bird; up to 32 cm long excluding his tail, which is approximately I meter long. The body is normally velvet black, though the male has an iridescent olive green and bronze plumage with adorned with ornamental “ball” plume above its bill and two extremely long, ribbon like tail feathers. Therefore, the female bird is a brown with an iridescent head; hybrids between this species and the Stephanie’s Astrapia in the small area where their ranges overlap have been named Barnes Astrapia. The bird common call is a loud clear "waugh", or "wock, whit-whit".

The Ribbon-Tailed-Astrapia diet consist of fruits, especially from the Umbrella Tree, and insects, spiders and frogs and also likes to upper montane and subalpine moss forests and forest edges; 1800-3450 m, mainly above 2450m. The birds commonly display occur during June, August, and December forms leks in which male bird displays from traditional perches, jumping back and forth between branches with erect, arched tail feathers. The recorded breeding seasons is March till May when females build and attend nests alone repeatedly builds nest in the same spot and site. The incubation period normally 21 days, and nestling period is 25 to 29 days.

Source: Charismtic Planet

The Prothonotary Warbler

Indeed, Prothonotary Warbler is one of the most striking wood-warblers of North America, intrigues and delights those who visit its swampy world. The prothonotary warbler “Protonotaria citrea” belongs to warbler family, the only member of genus Protonotaria. The prothonotary warbler is a small songbird just 13 cm long and weighs 12.5 g. The gorgeous warbler has an olive back with blue-grey wings and tail, vivid yellow underparts, and a long pointed bill with black legs. The immature and female birds are slightly duller along with yellow head; however male bird has bright orange yellow head. It is extremely rare vagrant to western states mainly in California, but habitually it breeds in hardwood swamps in extreme southeastern Ontario and eastern U.S.

This is the only warbler that nests in natural or artificial cavities, but many times it has used old downy woodpecker holes. Therefore, the male bird often builds various incomplete and unused nests, however female builds the real nest. Normally the nest contains 3 to 7 eggs. Well, the bird is named after prelates in the Roman Catholic church known as the protonotarii, who wore golden robes, and earlier it was famous with golden swamp warbler.

The Prothonotary warbler likes foraging habitat is dense, woody streams, in low foliage, mainly for insects and snails. The bird call is very simple, but loud rigging sweet-sweet-sweet-sweet-sweet. The song of this bird call is a loud, dry chip, like that of a hooded warbler and its flight call is a loud seeep. Though this bird has been studied fairly well in breeding areas, information about effects of habitat loss on migrating and wintering populations is at present lacking and is precarious for future conservation and management of the species. The Prothonotary warbler number is endangered in Canada, and their population is declining due to loss of habitat. However persists in protected environments such as South Carolina’s Francis Beidler Forest currently home to over 2000 pairs.

These birds are also parasitized by the brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater), or outcompeted for nest sites by the house wren (Troglodytes aedon). The prothonotary warbler became known in the 1940s as the bird established a connection between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss. Thus, Hiss likes to enjoy bird-watching, and once bragged about seeing a “prothonotary warbler”. Therefore, later on, Hiss testified to the similar incident, causing several members to become convinced of the pair's acquaintance. The birdwatchers don't often get a chance to see this lovely golden swamp warbler unless they’re in the suitable habitat, making the sight of a prothonotary an unforgettable experience. Source: Charismaticplanet.com

The Wilson’ Bird of Paradise

The Wilson’ bird of paradise (cicinnurus respublica) is a species of passerine bird belongs to Paradisaeidae family, lives on the hill and lowland rainforests of Waigeo and Batanta islands in West Papua Indonesia, where it reported to be frequent in suitable habitat. The exotic bird has the unique outlook with striking scarlet, yellow, green and blue plumage, specially, the turquoise dome of Wilson' bird of paradise is hairless. It's just bare skin and two long curved tail feathers also play a vital role in helping the males attract partners. The male bird looks more colorful as compare to females, which has light brown plumage with dark blue dome. The male bird entice to female by clean the leaves or debris to make their own stages in forest. Wilson's bird-of-paradise is small, up to 21 cm long, can reach 6.3 inches in length and 1.8 to 2.2 ounces of weight. The blue bare skin on the crown of the bird's head is so vivid that it is clearly visible by night; the deep scarlet back and velvet green breast are lush, the curlicue tail gleaming bright silver. The bird mating season of Wilson's bird of paradise takes place two times per year: from May to June and in October.

The bird habitually passing from branch to branch on the flat ground by bending their body in different postures, spreading the colorful iridescent plumage and chirping. The male bird shake head lean neck or turn up tail and open their mouths in front of female to entice their partner. The bird is discovered in 1850 when its courtship dance was recorded by the famous naturalist David Attenborough in the wild. The Wilson's bird-of-paradise diet is consists mainly of fruits, small insects and arthropods. The name "Wilson's bird of paradise" is coined by Napoleon's nephew who described unidentified bird that was purchased by British naturalist Edward Wilson.

Moreover, this is a poorly known species and no population estimates are available. Due to continue habitat loss, this species occurs within a very small range, and is likely to have a moderately small population, the bird is evaluated as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The rate of decline is not thought to be more rapid as this species apparently persists in selectively logged forest. Hunting for skins may also contribute to the decline. The BBC cameraman David Attenborough first time filmed his unusual behavior in 1996 by dropping leaves on the forest floor, which irritated the bird into clearing them away. With the impressive colorful plumage, Wilson's bird of paradise is considered the world's most beautiful bird. Source: Charismatic Planet

The Marvellous Spatuletail

The nature’s most beautiful bird is The Marvellous Spatuletail “Loddigesia Mirabilis” is just a 15cm long bird. The medium size hummingbird adorned with different colors, white green and bronze with blue crest feathers, and a brilliant turquoise gorget and black line on its white underparts. The bird is sexually dimorphic and only member of the monotypic genus Loddigesia. This bird can be found at the forest edges of Rio Utcubamba region in Peru. This Peruvian endemic bird was first discovered in 1835 by the bird collector Andrew Matthews for George Loddiges, after whom the genus is named. The bird is extremely unique in just having four feathers in its tail. However, male bird is having two long racquet-shaped outer tail feathers that cross each other and end in large violet-blue discs or “spatules”. The breeding season starts from late October to early May, which coincides with rainy season.

The marvellous spatuletail is unique among birds in having just four feathers in its tail. Its most remarkable feature is the male's two long racquet-shaped outer tail feathers that cross each other and end in large violet-blue discs or "spatules". The marvellous spatuletail bird can move them independently. The population of Marvellous Spatuletail in limited numbers and it is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The population is estimated to fall between 300 to 1000 mature individuals and equivalent to 375-1,499 individuals in total, rounded here to 350-1,500 individuals. Another threat to this species is hunting by locals, who believe that the male marvellous spatuletail’s heart is an aphrodisiac and this may account for the skewed sex ratio in this species, as adult males are habitually killed with slingshots and so are greatly outnumbered by females and immature males.

The bird call has been described as a thin, sweet, rising ‘wsst’, however displaying to the female the male marvellous spatuletail produces a snapping sound. The Marvellous Spatuletail has been featured in the PBS TV series Nature and the BBC TV. The BBC camera team was also the first to record the male marvellous spatuletail hummingbird displaying to a female, and his whole mating display from start to finish. The male marvellous spatuletail displays to a female by hovering in front of her, waving his tail feathers. Therefore, the courtship display of the male Marvellous Spatuletail is so energetically demanding that it can only be performed for very short periods. The Marvellous Spatuletail feeds consist on nectar, red-flowered lily, Bomarea formosissima. This is a solitary bird for most of the year, and moves around continually throughout the day, flying through dense thickets faster and with greater maneuverability than other hummingbirds.

Therefore, in 2006 American Bird Conservancy provided support to protect and manage 100 acres of significant habitat for jewel of this bird. They’ve planed more than 30,000 saplings of native trees and bushes to increase the bird’s numbers, which is best of its in Peru. The Marvellous Spatuletail hummingbird is among the rarest and striking of birds and uncommon due to its extreme mating behavior. The bird body size is slightly fluffy ping-pong ball, and beak in the size of matchstick. Source: Charismatic Planet