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.
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.
