in one of David Attenborough's wildlife programs,
but it was not this one, which is newly discovered, this is the some times sinister looking Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise,
this is the comparison between the closely
related superb bird-of-paradise and the Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise, on the
left above is the widespread superb bird-of-paradise, with its famous black
smiley face mating display, on the right is the newly identified Vogelkop
superb bird-of-paradise, which looks more like a frown face,
these GIFs are from a video from the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology which documents the spectacular plumage and
mating dance of the Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise, in order to catch the
attention of its female counterpart,
the male Bird-of-Paradise flips its cape of black feathers into a large ruff that surrounds its head, while also fanning out an iridescent azure blue skirt of feathers from its breast, for years, people mistook the Vogelkop superb bird-of-paradise
for the wider spread and closely related superb bird-of-paradise, "After you see what the Vogelkop form looks like and acts
like in the wild, there's little room for doubt that it is a separate
species," says Ed Scholes, evolutionary biologist with the Cornell
University Lab of Ornithology's Birds-of-Paradise Project, "The courtship dance is different. The vocalizations are
different. The females look different, even the shape of the displaying male is
different."
and here is the video, in a paper published by Timothy G. Laman
and Edwin Scholes, this Indonesian bird was recently confirmed as a
separate species based on its courtship behavior, You can learn more about the
Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise in another video from Cornell
and watch more videos about all things avian on the Lab’s YouTube channel, what an amazing bird and courtship display.
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