Alternative name: Twelve-wired Paradise Bird
- Seleucidis melanoleucus
Identification
Male 33cm, female 35cm. A distinctive Bird-of-Paradise.
Male
- Black head, upperparts, wing, chin, throat and breast with different iridescent sheen
- Brilliant yellow, cushion-like underparts
- Twelve elongated flank feathers form prominent black wires
- Blood-red eye
- Black, slightly decurved bill
- Aqua-green mouth
- Pink legs
Female
- Smaller than male but with much longer tail
- Sooty black upper head and upper mantle
- Chestnut brown upperparts
- Greyish-white malar area, throat and remaining underparts, blackish barred
Juveniles are undescribed, immature males are similar to females.
Distribution
Patchily distributed in the lowlands of New Guinea and on Salawati Island.
Common in parts of its range but little known due to mostly impenetrable habitat.
Taxonomy
Two subspecies recognized:
- S. m. melanoleucus on Salawati (West Papuan Islands) and West and South New Guinea
- S. m. auripennis in North New Guinea
The scientific name was formerly spelled melanoleuca. Hybrids with Magnificent Riflebird and Lesser Bird-of-Paradise recorded.
Habitat
Lowland rainforest, prefers permanently or seasonally flooded swamp-forest. Occurs up to 180m.
Behaviour
Feeds on fruits (notably pandanus), takes also animals like arthropods or small vertebrates (frogs and lizards), sometimes nectar.
Forages acrobatically, often hanging upside-down. Sometimes in mixed-species flocks with other Birds-of-paradise and Pitohuis.
Breeding season in southeast from January to late October. A polygynous species. The male displays at a traditional perch, usually a dead tree stump. It advertises vocally and when a female arrives a complex dance starts.
The female builds and attends the nest alone. The nest is a shallow egg-cup made of vine or tree stems. It's placed up to 14m above the ground in a pandanus or sago palm. Lays 1 egg.
Presumably a resident species.
References
- Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
- Del Hoyo, J, A Elliott, and D Christie, eds. 2009. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 14: Bush-shrikes to Old World Sparrows. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8496553507
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Twelve-wired Bird-of-Paradise. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 25 April 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Twelve-wired_Bird-of-Paradise
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
