The beautiful blue plumage of this bird is enhanced to perfection by its equally beautiful dancing in his courtship display.
The blue bird-of-paradise (Paradisornis rudolphi) is a beautiful, relatively large species of bird-of-paradise. It is the sole species in the genus Paradisornis but was previously included in the genus Paradisaea. Mostly black, this bird of paradise has a bluish-white bill, dark grey legs, and broken white and bright blue wings.
The male is also adorned with violet-blue and cinnamon flank feathers, from which emerge two long tail feathers in a button-like shape.
In comparison, the female is predominantly brown.
These birds are only distributed in the mountainous forests of the Central Ranges in southeastern Papua New Guinea.
Blue-birds-of-paradise is a mainly frugivorous species, dining on a wide variety of fruit and berries but will occasionally eat animal prey such as insects and reptiles.
During the breeding season, male blue-birds-of-paradise undergo a breathtaking display while hanging the black egg with a vivid margin on their chest, rhythmically enlarging and contracting its size. Simultaneously, fanning out his violet-blue plume, continuously producing a soft, insect-like buzzing noise mixed with chittering or chattering. If successful in his efforts, the female proceeds to build a nest of stems, twigs, palm leaves, and vines in a flat cup-like shape. Overall, an egg is covered in blood by a highly defensive future mother.
Due to continuous habitat loss, this bird has a decreasing range with a small population size. They are also under threat from hunting for their highly prized plumes, thus blue-birds-of-paradise are assessed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
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