Male nominate race has lores, forehead, ear-coverts, malar area, chin and throat iridescent yellowish emerald-green, nostril covered by feathers; rest of head, including nape and hindneck, pale orangy yellow, glossed iridescent silver, yellow extending as narrow collar across lower throat and also from hindneck onto mantle (there overlying dark brown, producing apparent mid-brown colour): remaining upper-parts, including upperwing and tail, dark brown, washed maroon on back, rump and uppertail-coverts, with discrete pale orangy-yellow wingbar on lesser coverts and variable orangy-yellow wash on outer edges of greater coverts; central pair of rectrices grossly elongated, reduced to finely tapering blackish wires and lacking vanes except at bases; upper breast blackish-brown with iridescence of dark coppery-bronze, grading to medium brown on belly and to pinkish mid-brown on thighs, vent and undertail-coverts, the last softly filamental and elongated to half tail length; grossly elongated and tapering filamental flank plumes crimson to orange-crimson with buffish-white tips on lower surface and rusty-brown on upper surface; iris yellow; bill pale chalky bluish-grey, mouth pinkish-flesh; legs pale, dull fleshy brown. Female is smaller than male, notably in wing length and weight, and with central rectrices shorter, narrower and more pointed than rest; face, ear-coverts, chin and throat dark brown, crown, rear and side of neck and narrow foreneck-collar dark buff-yellow, collar quickly grading to pinkish light-brown on underpays, which paler on central belly. Juvenile is entirely dark brownish, but by four months of age like adult female; immature male as adult female; subadult male variable, like adult female with few feathers of adult male plumage intruding, initially about head, to like adult male with few feathers of female-like plumage remaining; male gains progressively longer central pair of rectrices; in captivity, first traces of adult male plumage acquired at c. 5 years, full plumage after at least a further year or two, two nestlings took three years to acquire completely yellow iris. Race salvadorii is like nominate, but brown mantle of both sexes lacking yellow, and scarlet of male flank plumes paler and plumes shorter; intermedia is similar to previous, but both sexes with yellow mantle-back and yellow streaking down to uppertail-coverts; augustaevictoriae is like last, but flank plumes apricot-orange, abdomen paler, and yellow throat-collar narrow, female much paler above and below than nominate female, with more buff-yellow on back, and yellowish collar on foreneck reduced or absent.
Not Threatened
Male nominate race has lores, forehead, ear-coverts, malar area, chin and throat iridescent yellowish emerald-green, nostril covered by feathers; rest of head, including nape and hindneck, pale orangy yellow, glossed iridescent silver, yellow extending as narrow collar across lower throat and also from hindneck onto mantle (there overlying dark brown, producing apparent mid-brown colour): remaining upper-parts, including upperwing and tail, dark brown, washed maroon on back, rump and uppertail-coverts, with discrete pale orangy-yellow wingbar on lesser coverts and variable orangy-yellow wash on outer edges of greater coverts; central pair of rectrices grossly elongated, reduced to finely tapering blackish wires and lacking vanes except at bases; upper breast blackish-brown with iridescence of dark coppery-bronze, grading to medium brown on belly and to pinkish mid-brown on thighs, vent and undertail-coverts, the last softly filamental and elongated to half tail length; grossly elongated and tapering filamental flank plumes crimson to orange-crimson with buffish-white tips on lower surface and rusty-brown on upper surface; iris yellow; bill pale chalky bluish-grey, mouth pinkish-flesh; legs pale, dull fleshy brown. Female is smaller than male, notably in wing length and weight, and with central rectrices shorter, narrower and more pointed than rest; face, ear-coverts, chin and throat dark brown, crown, rear and side of neck and narrow foreneck-collar dark buff-yellow, collar quickly grading to pinkish light-brown on underpays, which paler on central belly. Juvenile is entirely dark brownish, but by four months of age like adult female; immature male as adult female; subadult male variable, like adult female with few feathers of adult male plumage intruding, initially about head, to like adult male with few feathers of female-like plumage remaining; male gains progressively longer central pair of rectrices; in captivity, first traces of adult male plumage acquired at c. 5 years, full plumage after at least a further year or two, two nestlings took three years to acquire completely yellow iris. Race salvadorii is like nominate, but brown mantle of both sexes lacking yellow, and scarlet of male flank plumes paler and plumes shorter; intermedia is similar to previous, but both sexes with yellow mantle-back and yellow streaking down to uppertail-coverts; augustaevictoriae is like last, but flank plumes apricot-orange, abdomen paler, and yellow throat-collar narrow, female much paler above and below than nominate female, with more buff-yellow on back, and yellowish collar on foreneck reduced or absent.
Male 34 cm (excluding tail wires), 234-300 g; female 33 cm, 133-220 g
Taxonomy: Paradisea raggiana P. L. Sclater, 1873, Orangerie Bay, extreme south-east New Guinea. Genus name sometimes spelt Paradisea (see page 46). Has been suggested to form a superspecies with P. minor, P. apoda, P. decora and P. rubra. Hybridization with P. minor, P. apoda, P. guilielmi and P. rudolphi recorded. Race salvadorii sometimes treated as synonym of nominate. Additional proposed race granti (described from area inland from Huon Gulf) sometimes recognized, but probably better considered a linking population between intermedia and augustaevictoriae; two last-mentioned races hybridize. (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)
Subspecies and Distribution:
- * salvadorii Mayr & Rand, 1935 - S & SE New Guinea from Fly/Strickland watershed E (extending into interior highland valleys, e.g. Wahgi and Tari Valleys) to Cloudy Bay. * augustaevictoriae Cabanis, 1888 - upper Ramu R and Huon Peninsula (and interior valleys to S, i.e. those of Markham, Wafa, Watut and Bulolo rivers), and also SE to Waria R watershed and coastally to lower Mambare R. * intermedia De Vis, 1894 - N coast of SE New Guinea from lower Mambare R E to Collingwood Bay. * raggiana P. L. Sclater, 1873 - S watershed of SE New Guinea from Cloudy Bay E to Milne Bay, and into N watershed as far as Goodenough Bay or Cape Vogel.
Lowland forest, hill forest and lower montane forest, secondary growth, forest edges, gardens, and casuarina trees and copses in open deforested areas; adult males mostly remain in forest interiors; sea-level to c. 1500 m. Leks may be formed in almost any habitat type; traditional lek sites tend to occupy prominent position in local topography, such as high ridge crest, but also found in valleys or at sites lacking prominent relief.
Mostly fruits, mainly capsular ones and figs; also arthropods. Nestlings fed with arthropods for first five days, thereafter with both fruits and arthropods. Frequents middle stage to canopy of forest. Gleans arthropods from bark, branches and canopy leaves. Joins other passerines in mixed foraging flocks, including those with New Guinea Babblers and various pitohuis, sometimes with one or more other birds-of-paradise.
Season at least Apr-Dec; nesting recorded Oct-Nov in Wau and late Jul and Aug at Varirata (near Port Moresby); males with gonads moderately enlarged in all months except Nov (sample lacking) but much enlarged only Apr-Oct and one in Jan; display months vary across range, peak Jun-Oct in Wau Valley and May-Aug at Varirata National Park, activity at each extending for at least a month before and after peak. Polygynous, lekking promiscuous males on traditional display perches; female builds and attends nest alone. Leks typically located in upper portion or top branches of a canopy tree in forest interior or forest remnant, most involving a single tree canopy but some can include another, and may hold several to as many as ten adult males; leks commonly long-lived, to more than 20 years; some leks may be shared with male P. apoda. Courtship involves three fundamental display phases, i.e. Convergence Display, Static Display and Copu-latory Sequence dance phase, with small differences in detail of posturing, movements and feather presentation. Nest an open bowl-shaped structure of leaves, leaf pieces, rootlets, vine stems, orchids or ferns and fibres, with discrete egg-cup lining of horsehair-like material, built in tree branches 2-11 m above ground (higher in human-disturbed areas). Clutch 1-2 eggs, mostly 2, eggs laid on consecutive days in captivity; incubation period at one nest in wild 18 days, at one in captivity 20 days; nestling period in captivity (three nests) 17-20 days. Long-lived in captivity: 13-year-old female fertilized by a male c. 33 years old, and successfully raised two offspring.