Male nominate race has lores, forehead, ear-coverts, malar area, chin and throat finely feathered iridescent yellowish emerald-green, nostril covered by feathers; rest of head pale orangy yellow, glossed iridescent silver, this extending onto nape and mantle and blending into mid-brown of back and upperwing; remaining uppcrparts, including upperwing and tail, paler brown, washed maroon on back, rump and uppertail-coverts, wing with extensive orangy-ycllow shoulder bar and outer edges of greater coverts; central pair of rectrices grossly elongated, only basally webbed and coloured as tail, distally reduced to fine brown wires: breast darker maroon-brown, becoming paler on belly, thighs and undertail-coverts, central tail-coverts soft, fluffy and much elongated; grossly elongated filamental flank plumes bright yellow at bases, streaked maroon, fading distally to dirty white and to slightest of beige hue: iris yellow; bill chalky bluish-grey, mouth pinkish-flesh; legs purplish grey-brown. Female is smaller than male, exclusively so in wing length, with central rectrices shorter, narrower and more pointed than rest; entire head dark brown, grading to paler buff on nape and mantle, remaining upperparts variably mid-brown to dark brown; dark brown throat, white rest of underparts with pinkish light brown wash, especially on flanks and undertail-coverts. thighs brown. Juvenile undescribed; immature male like adult female: subadult variable, like adult female with few feathers of adult male plumage intruding, and with central rectrices longer, narrower and more pointed than rest, to like adult male with few feathers of female-like plumage remaining; in captivity, transition from female-like to adult male plumage started at age 4 and continued for further 4—5 years, individual thus 8-9 years old when first in full adult male plumage; male acquires progressively longer central rectrices. Race jobiensis is larger than others, especially in tarsus length, has flank-plume colour same as nominate: finschi is on average similar in size to nominate, but flank plumes proportionately slightly shorter and of brighter orangy yellow; yellow shoulder less extensive than in other races.
Not Threatened
Male nominate race has lores, forehead, ear-coverts, malar area, chin and throat finely feathered iridescent yellowish emerald-green, nostril covered by feathers; rest of head pale orangy yellow, glossed iridescent silver, this extending onto nape and mantle and blending into mid-brown of back and upperwing; remaining uppcrparts, including upperwing and tail, paler brown, washed maroon on back, rump and uppertail-coverts, wing with extensive orangy-ycllow shoulder bar and outer edges of greater coverts; central pair of rectrices grossly elongated, only basally webbed and coloured as tail, distally reduced to fine brown wires: breast darker maroon-brown, becoming paler on belly, thighs and undertail-coverts, central tail-coverts soft, fluffy and much elongated; grossly elongated filamental flank plumes bright yellow at bases, streaked maroon, fading distally to dirty white and to slightest of beige hue: iris yellow; bill chalky bluish-grey, mouth pinkish-flesh; legs purplish grey-brown. Female is smaller than male, exclusively so in wing length, with central rectrices shorter, narrower and more pointed than rest; entire head dark brown, grading to paler buff on nape and mantle, remaining upperparts variably mid-brown to dark brown; dark brown throat, white rest of underparts with pinkish light brown wash, especially on flanks and undertail-coverts. thighs brown. Juvenile undescribed; immature male like adult female: subadult variable, like adult female with few feathers of adult male plumage intruding, and with central rectrices longer, narrower and more pointed than rest, to like adult male with few feathers of female-like plumage remaining; in captivity, transition from female-like to adult male plumage started at age 4 and continued for further 4—5 years, individual thus 8-9 years old when first in full adult male plumage; male acquires progressively longer central rectrices. Race jobiensis is larger than others, especially in tarsus length, has flank-plume colour same as nominate: finschi is on average similar in size to nominate, but flank plumes proportionately slightly shorter and of brighter orangy yellow; yellow shoulder less extensive than in other races.
32 cm (excluding tail wires); male 183-300 g. female 141-210 g
Taxonomy: Paradisea minor Shaw, 1809, Dorey, Vogelkop, New Guinea. Genus name sometimes spelt Paradisea (see page 46). Has been suggested to form a superspecies with P. apoda, P. raggiana, P. decora and P. rubra. Hybridization with P. raggiana and P. guilielmi and also, intergenerically, with Ptiloris magnificus, Cicinnurus magnificus and Seleucidis melanoleucus recorded. Proposed race pulchra (described from Misool, in West Papuan Is) synonymized with nominate. Three subspecies recognized. (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)
Subspecies and Distribution:
- * minor Shaw, 1809 - West Papuan Is (Misool) and W New Guinea E in N watershed to West Papua-Papua New Guinea border and, in S watershed, to Etna Bay. * jobiensis Rothschild, 1897 - Yapen I, in Geelvink Bay (NW New Guinea). * finschi A. B. Meyer, 1885 - N New Guinea from just E of border E to Gogol and upper Ramu R.
Lowland and hill forest, swamp-forest, forest edge and second growth; adaptable to human-altered environments. Sea-level to c. 1550 m. Adult and subadult males restricted to forest and advanced second growth, whereas birds in female-type plumage have broader habitat acceptance; upper altitudinal limit of adult and subadult males lower than that of female-plumaged birds. Leks reported from much-disturbed, secondary mid-mountain forest, and in a single lofty tree or two immediately adjacent trees in forest interior.
Mostly fruits, also arthropods. Forages mainly in canopy; also lower when seeking arthropods. May join mixed-species foraging flocks with other birds-of-paradise and flocks of New Guinea Babbler.
Season at least Jul-Feb; males with enlarged gonads in most months, but more so Feb-Aug, and females with enlarged oocytes in Jul—Sept, Nov and Feb (mostly Aug). Polygynous, lekking promiscuous males at traditional tree perches; female builds and attends nest alone. Males defoliate lek area, up to twelve adult males in single lek tree, most copulations performed by centrally located individual male; traditional leks persist in one tree, or a few adjacent ones, for many years, possibly up to a century. Display occurs as males gather at a lek because one or more females nearby; courtship involves three fundamental display phases, i.e. Convergence Display, Static Display and Copulatory Sequence dance phase, with some additional postures and movements, the Convergence Display including upright Wing Pose (as for P. apoda). Two nests known, both a bulky open cup made from twigs, sticks, vines and dead leaves, lined with black wire-like fibres or rootlets, one placed 6 m above ground in branch fork of slender tree in forest near native garden, the other "very high" in thick foliage in a garden and fallow zone. Clutch 1—2 eggs, mostly 1; in captivity, incubation period 18 days, three single-nestling broods left nest 18 or 19 days after hatching.