Paradisaea apoda

Description[

The greater bird-of-paradise is the largest member in the genus Paradisaea, with males measuring up to 43 cm (17 in) (excluding the long twin tail wires). The female is bigger, at 48 cm (19 in). The plumage of this species is also sexually dimorphic. The male has an iridescent green face and a yellow glossed with silver iridescence crown, head and nape. The rest of the body plumage is maroon-brown. The flank plumes, used in displays, are yellow at the base, turning white and streaked with maroon. The female has unbarred maroon brown plumage. In both sexes the iris is yellow and the bills blue.^[3]

Distribution

The greater bird-of-paradise is distributed to lowland and hill forests of southwest New Guinea and Aru Islands, Indonesia. The diet consists mainly of fruits, seeds and small insects. A small population was introduced by Sir William Ingram in 1909-1912 to Little Tobago Island of West Indies in an attempt to save the species from extinction due to overhunting for plume trades. The introduced populations survived until at least 1966,^[4] but most likely are extinct now. The bird still appears on Trinidad and Tobago's $100 bill.

Behavior and ecology[

edit]Diet[edit]

Greater Birds-of-paradise, like a majority of their relatives, they are fond of fruits and arthropods; birds in female-type plumage are often found foraging in association with other bird-of-paradise species and even other bird species. Wallace noted in The Malay Archipelago, that they become active before sunrise, when their loud wawk-wawk, wǒk-wǒk-wǒk cries resound through the forest, as they move about in different directions in search of food.^[5]

Courtship and breeding

Male greater birds-of-paradise, as polygynous breeders, experience female selection, in which females choose male mates based upon indirect genetic benefits which increase offspring fitness.^[6] Since males do not contribute to offspring in any other way (i.e. through parental care), females have to assess male fitness through courtship rituals, details of which are in the following sections.^[7][8]

Dances]

"Hunchback" display pose. The male takes this position with other males in the wild. After a few prolonged seconds of posing in place, the males hop around with their flank feathers cocked and loudly calling, then pausing again.

Males display in trees above the ground and congregate in a lek or “court” versus individually displaying for females.^[7] Males will initially congregate around common display areas on a secondary perch, away from the main viewing perches available, and flap their wings rapidly. They will then move to the main viewing perches, erecting their large plumes at their rumps over their backs and extending their wings (Pose 1).^[8] They subsequently depress their bodies close to the branches that they are on, retract their wings, leave their tail plumes erected, and prance or charge along their branch (Pose 2).^[8] The birds will then freeze with their bills pointed downwards, wings extended once again, and tail plumes still upright (Pose 3).^[4] Males will assume this last position, referred to as the “flower position” when females are present, for inspection purposes, but will refrain and remain in position two, moving in synchrony, when females are absent.^[7][4]

Males will often visit each other's display grounds, located relatively close to each other, but will perform the majority of their displays at a common court. Other courtship behaviors outside of the physical dance can consist of bill-wiping, in which the male pauses the dance and brushes both sides of his beak on the branch, as well as leaf-tearing, hanging upside down from the branch, and vocalizations.^[4]

Calls^[4]

Males use eight variations of calls, commonly referred to as “wauks” within courtship rituals, each linked to a section of the courtship dance:

• Rising call: A series of four or five “wauks” repeated at one-second intervals. The first two notes are of approximately equal volume and the subsequent two or three are of increasing volume and intensity.

• Rapid wauk call: A series of quick “wauks”, all of the equal volume, delivered in bursts of several per second, accompanied by wingbeats. These calls are usually performed when a female is in the vicinity and in correlation with pose one

 The greater bird-of-paradise (Paradisaea apoda) is a bird-of-paradise in the genus Paradisaea.

Carl Linnaeus named the species Paradisaea apoda, or "legless bird-of-paradise", because early trade-skins to reach Europe were prepared without wings or feet by the indigenous New Guinean people; this led to the misconception that these birds were beautiful visitors from paradise that were kept aloft by their plumes and never touched the earth until death.^[2]

• Wing pose call: The only non-“wauk” call, this vocalization consists of piercing “ee-ak” notes repeated multiple times. This call is accompanied by the posing of the wings (pose 1) and alternated with the rapid wauk call.

• Pump call: A much faster version of the rapid wauk call, to the point where the sound of the call meshes into a single sound of “wa-wa-wa.” These calls last up to ten seconds.

• Baa call: Following the pump call, males will perform several nasal “baa” notes combined with movement into pose three.

• Nasal call: A more sudden and nasally version of the baa call given after the male leaves the primary viewing branch around the court.

• Chugich call: Can be performed prior to the click call or after the nasal call; consists of a guttural “chug’ich” note.

Daily display rhythm

Males spend the majority of their time during mating seasons at their respective display grounds. They begin calling before sunrise and cease shortly after sunset.^[4] They feed very briefly and infrequently, moving away from display grounds in the heat of the afternoon, and returning before dusk.^[4] This mating behavior most commonly occurs between March and May, and again August through December, but can occur during other parts of the year as well.^[8]

Source: Wikpedia

Passerine Birds

                                             

Bird Of Paardise

 

Bird-of-paradise

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This article is about the bird family Paradisaeidae. For other uses, see Bird of paradise.

Bird-of-paradise
Raggiana bird-of-paradise (Paradisaea raggiana)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Superfamily:	Corvoidea
Family:	Paradisaeidae Vigors, 1825
Genera
15 genera, 42 species

The birds-of-paradise are members of the family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes. The majority of species are found in Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia. The family has 42 species in 15 genera.^[1] The members of this family are perhaps best known for the plumage of the males of the species (the majority) which are sexually dimorphic, in particular the very long elaborate feathers extending from the beak, wings, tail or head. For the most part they are confined to dense rainforest habitat. The diet of all species is dominated by fruit and to a lesser extent arthropods. The birds-of-paradise have a variety of breeding systems, ranging from monogamy to lek-type^[2] polygamy.

Back to Black: How Birds-of-Paradise Get Their Midnight Feathers

 

Many male birds-of-paradise employ bright colors and iridescent feathers in their mating displays—but a few species also sport superblack plumage. Now researchers have teased out the structural secrets behind these feathers, which rival even the deep, velvety darkness of human-made materials designed to absorb light.

Feathers, like most opaque objects, typically get their color from pigments in surface coatings (much as melanin colors skin) or from tiny surface structures that reflect light, such as those found on iridescent butterflies and beetles. But superblack feathers are the opposite of iridescent, says Dakota McCoy, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University and co-author of a recent study on the topic. This plumage absorbs up to 99.95 percent of the visible light that hits it, reported McCoy and her colleagues in January in Nature Communications.

A closer look at these specialized display feathers exposes their light-trapping trick: microstructures called barbules, located near the feathers' tips, are covered with a multitude of even tinier branching structures. In contrast, most flight-feather barbules have Velcro-like hooks that can snag neighboring barbules to form a solid yet flexible aerodynamic surface. When light strikes a superblack feather's forest of barbules—which tilt at about 30 degrees toward the outer tip of the feather—it gets reflected into cavities between the tiny structures rather than outward, McCoy says. Even when coated with vaporized gold, these feathers still appeared black, whereas feathers that derive their black color from pigments looked golden when similarly coated, she adds.

The super-black feathers of the bird-of-paradise Parotia wahnesi get their light-absorbing ability from tiny barbules on their plumes. Credit: Dakota McCoy
The team's findings reveal a new type of feather microstructure, according to evolutionary biologist Matthew Shawkey of Ghent University in Belgium, who was not involved in the study. “This structure enhances the blackness produced by the feathers' pigments,” Shawkey says.

Black feathers found on other birds-of-paradise—and some found elsewhere on one of the species the team analyzed—reflect between 10 and 100 times more light than the superblack feathers do, McCoy says.

She and her colleagues propose that the inky feathers evolved as a way to emphasize brighter-colored ones, helping to attract potential mates. In all the superblack species the researchers examined, the special feathers were always immediately adjacent to bright, lustrous ones. During mating displays the males hold these plumes so that the feathers appear their darkest from the females' point of view, McCoy notes.

“This is definitely not about camouflage,” Shawkey says. “This superblack plumage is enhancing the contrast with those bright-colored feathers nearby.”

Curtesy:scientificamerican.com

Water Birds Swan and Duck family (Anatidae)

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The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming, floating on the water surface, and in some cases diving in at least shallow water. The family contains around 174 species in 43 genera. (The magpie goose is no longer considered to be part of the Anatidae and is now placed in its own family, Anseranatidae.)

They are generally herbivorous, and are monogamous breeders. A number of species undertake annual migrations. A few species have been domesticated for agriculture, and many others are hunted for food and recreation. Five species have become extinct since 1600, and many more are threatened with extinction.

 The main difference between Duck and Swan is that the Duck is a common name for many species in the bird family Anatidae which go QUAB and Swan is a large water bird. ... Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water

Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus Cygnus. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae. Wikipedia

For Bird Lovers

About Birds

Birds are vertebrate animals adapted for flight.

Many can also run, jump, swim, and dive. Some, like penguins, have lost the ability to fly but retained their wings. Birds are found worldwide and in all habitats. The largest is the nine-foot-tall ostrich. The smallest is the two-inch-long bee hummingbird.

Everything about the anatomy of a bird reflects its ability to fly. The wings, for example, are shaped to create lift. The leading edge is thicker than the back edge, and they are covered in feathers that narrow to a point. Airplane wings are modeled after bird wings.

The bones and muscles of the wing are also highly specialized. The main bone, the humerus, which is similar to the upper arm of a mammal, is hollow instead of solid. It also connects to the bird’s air sac system, which, in turn, connects to its lungs. The powerful flight muscles of the shoulder attach to the keel, a special ridge of bone that runs down the center of the wide sternum, or breastbone. The tail feathers are used for steering.

Birds have a unique digestive system that allows them to eat when they can—usually on the fly—and digest later. They use their beaks to grab and swallow food. Even the way a bird reproduces is related to flight. Instead of carrying the extra weight of developing young inside their bodies, they lay eggs and incubate them in a nest.

The fossil record shows that birds evolved alongside the dinosaurs during the Jurassic period 160 million years ago. The best known fossil is archaeopteryx, which was about the size of a crow.

FROM THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BOOK, ANIMAL ENCYCLOPEDIA, 2012