king bird-of-paradise
{{Short description|Species of bird}}
{{speciesbox
| name = King bird-of-paradise
| image = Cicinnurus regius-20031005.jpg
| image_caption = Male
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| genus = Cicinnurus
| parent_authority = Vieillot, 1816
| species = regius
| authority = (Linnaeus, 1758)
| synonyms = Paradisaea regia {{small|Linnaeus, 1758}}
}}
The king bird-of-paradise (Cicinnurus regius) is a passerine bird of the Paradisaeidae (bird-of-paradise) family. It is considered by the IOC checklist to be the only member of the genus Cicinnurus, although the genus Diphyllodes is closely related and is subsumed under Cicinnurus by many other authorities.
The king bird-of-paradise is a common and wide-ranging species, distributed throughout lowland forests of New Guinea and western satellite islands. Some populations range quite high into the hills and lower mountains, and these are poorly known as yet.{{Cite book|last=Gregory|first=Phill|title=Birds of Paradise and Bowerbirds|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|year=2020|isbn=9781472975843}}
The first captive breeding of this species was by Sten Bergman of Sweden in 1958. He was awarded a commemorative medal by the Foreign Bird League to mark this achievement.
Taxonomy
The king bird-of-paradise was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Paradisaea regius.{{cite book | last=Linnaeus | first=Carl | author-link=Carl Linnaeus | year=1758 | title= Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | volume=1 | edition=10th | page=110 | publisher=Laurentii Salvii | location=Holmiae (Stockholm) | language=Latin | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/727015 }} The type locality is the Aru Islands.{{ cite book | editor1-last=Mayr | editor1-first=Ernst | editor1-link=Ernst Mayr | editor2-last=Greenway | editor2-first=James C. Jr | year=1962 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=15 | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | location=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=197 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14485570 }} It is now the only species placed in the genus Cicinnurus that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot.{{cite book | last=Vieillot | first=Louis Pierre | author-link=Louis Pierre Vieillot | year=1816 | title=Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Élémentaire | publisher=Deterville/self | location=Paris | page = 35 | language=French| url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9745205x/f41.item }}{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen | date=July 2021 | title=Crows, mudnesters, melampittas, Ifrit, birds-of-paradise | work=IOC World Bird List Version 11.2 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/crows/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | accessdate=9 August 2021 }} The genus name combines the Ancient Greek κικιννος/kikinnos meaning "ringlet" or "curled lock of hair" with ουρα/oura meaning "tail. The specific epithet regius is Latin meaning "kingly".{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 | pages=107, 332 }}
Two subspecies are recognised:
- C. r. regius (Linnaeus, 1758) – south New Guinea, west Papuan islands and Aru Islands (southwest of New Guinea)
- C. r. coccineifrons Rothschild, 1896 – north, central, and east New Guinea, and Yapen Island (off northwest New Guinea)
Description
This so-called "living gem"[https://books.google.com/books?id=6ScHOB7ztgUC&dq=king+bird+of+paradise+living+gem&pg=PA491 Designing Social Interfaces: Principles, Patterns, and Practices for Improving the User Experience] by Christian Crumlish and Erin Malone (17 September 2009) is the smallest and most vividly colored among birds-of-paradise.
The king bird-of-paradise is small, measuring approximately {{Convert|6.3-7.5|in|cm|abbr=}} long, but {{Convert|12.2|in|cm|abbr=}} if central rectrices of adult males included.{{Cite book|last=Pratt, Thane K.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/894139572|title=Birds of New Guinea|others=Beehler, Bruce McP,, Bishop, K. David,, Coates, Brian J.,, Diamond, Jared M.,, Lecroy, Mary,, Anderton, John|date=26 October 2014|isbn=978-1-4008-6511-6|edition=Second|location=Princeton, New Jersey|oclc=894139572}} Females weigh about {{Convert|0.08–0.13|lb|g|abbr=}}, males {{Convert|0.10-0.14|lb|g|abbr=}}.
The adult male has an overall metallic crimson color, slightly orange under certain lights,{{Cite book|last=British Museum (Natural History)|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/220992160|title=Catalogue of the birds in the British Museum|publisher=British Museum (Natural History). Department of Zoology|year=1877|volume=3|location=London|pages=171–172|oclc=220992160}} and more particularly so in the crown. They have a narrow, dark green iridescent breast band with whitish lower breast, and green-tipped fan-like plumes on the shoulder. The feathers of the undertail and mantle are olive-brown, with iridescent green tips, and violet legs. Bills are ivory-yellow. Females have dull olive heads and upperparts with yellowish underparts and violet legs.{{Cite book|title=Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition|publisher=Gale Group, 2002|year=2002|isbn=0-7876-5787-5|editor-last=A. Jackson|editor-first=Jerome|volume=11|location=Farmington Hills, MI|pages=499–500|editor-last2=Bock|editor-first2=Walter J.|editor-last3=Olendorf|editor-first3=Donna}}
Distribution and habitat
The king bird-of-paradise is distributed throughout the majority of lowland New Guinea mainland, and on the surrounding islands, including Aru, Salawati, Missol, and Yapen, inhabiting mostly lowland rainforests, gallery forests, forest edges, and disturbed and tall secondary forests.
Ecology and behaviour
There is little information available about this species' behavior. They are inconspicuous and may be hard to locate, except for males at their display trees.
= Courtship and breeding =
The species is polygynous, with the promiscuous adult males displaying in isolation at exploded leks and in groups at traditional arboreal courts.{{Cite web|title=King Bird of Paradise|url=http://australian.museum/about/history/exhibitions/birds-of-paradise/king-bird-of-paradise/|access-date=2020-09-22|website=The Australian Museum|language=en|id=ABN 85 407 224 698}} They are perhaps more persistent callers than any other birds of paradise. Courtship involves complex vocalizations, feather manipulations, and a variety of body posturing and movements, including hanging fully inverted and pendulum-like swinging. An extraordinary courtship display is performed by the male with a series of tail swinging, fluffing of the white abdominal feathers that makes the bird look like a cotton ball, and acrobatic movements of their elongated tail wires.
Breeding occurs at least during March through October. The open cup nest is built into a tree cavity (unique within the family), within which two eggs are laid. The female builds the nest and cares for the young without male assistance. In captivity, incubation lasted 17 days and the nestling period was 14 days.
= Feeding and diet =
The diet consists mainly of fruits and arthropods. Foraging occurs at all forest levels, where birds often join mixed-species foraging flocks to seek arthropods in the lower forest.
Conservation status
The species is tentatively assessed as being in decline due to habitat loss{{Cite journal|last1=Tracewski|first1=Łukasz|last2=Butchart|first2=Stuart H.M.|last3=Di Marco|first3=Moreno|last4=Ficetola|first4=Gentile F.|last5=Rondinini|first5=Carlo|last6=Symes|first6=Andy|last7=Wheatley|first7=Hannah|last8=Beresford|first8=Alison E.|last9=Buchanan|first9=Graeme M.|date=October 2016|title=Toward quantification of the impact of 21st-century deforestation on the extinction risk of terrestrial vertebrates: Effects of Deforestation on Vertebrates|url=http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/cobi.12715|journal=Conservation Biology|language=en|volume=30|issue=5|pages=1070–1079|doi=10.1111/cobi.12715|pmid=26991445|s2cid=3818990 |hdl=2434/450715|hdl-access=free}} and unsustainable levels of hunting. However, despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, being a widespread and abundant species throughout their large habitat range, the king bird-of-paradise is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.{{Cite journal|author=BirdLife International|date=2018-08-06|title=IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: Cicinnurus regius|url=https://www.iucnredlist.org/en|access-date=2020-09-22|website=IUCN Red List of Threatened Species|doi=10.2305/iucn.uk.2018-2.rlts.t22706208a130412002.en|s2cid=240316079 |doi-access=free}} It is listed in Appendix II of CITES.
References
External links
{{Commons|Cicinnurus regius}}
{{Wikispecies|Cicinnurus regius}}
- [http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=5832&m=0 BirdLife Species Factsheet]
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFQ9VQ5jyw8 King Bird-of-Paradise], courtship display at YouTube, by Cornell Lab of Ornithology
{{Birds-of-paradise}}
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{{Taxonbar|from=Q795507}}