Epimachus fastuosus Hermann, 1783

Large paradisaeid with long, sickle-shaped bill and greatly elongated central tail feathers. Male nominate race has en-lire head black, scale-like feathers showing iridescence of metallic green-blues with purple and/or magenta washes; chin tuft and throat blackish with only slightest magenta sheen; velvety black above, mantle to uppertail-coverts with violet-purple and/or magenta iridescence, large scale-like central back feathers with highly metallic blue-green iridescence, upperwing with variable blue to violet-purple and/or magenta sheens; primaries blackish-brown; uppertail blackish-brown with iridescent purple except central feather pair, which iridescent metallic blue-purple to violet-purple and/or magenta; upper breast brownish-black, grading to slightly paler browner on lower breast and to sepia on elongate filamental flank plumes, vent and undertail-coverts (black of underparts may show plum-purple sheen); greatly enlarged axehead-shaped pectoral plumes black with metallic dark magenta iridescence, and shorter overlying ones broadly tipped iridescent metallic blue, purple and/or violet; elongate modified feathers on each side of belly and vent with highly iridescent metallic deep purple-blue to violet-purple broad tips, tapering distally; iris bright blood-red; bill black, mouth bright yellow; legs blackish-grey. Female is markedly smaller than male, particularly in tail, has brown iris and radically different plumage, with no iridescence; cryptically coloured in various shades of dark brown dorsally, more reddish-brown on forehead, crown, nape, greater coverts and flight-feathers; face, chin and throai to upper breast dark brown, rest of underparts pale buff with dark brown barring, bars on breast becoming increasingly broad down on to lower breast and belly, with even broader barring on flanks, vent and undertail-coverts. Juvenile is like adult female, but crown and upperparts more rust-red, plumage soft and downy below, browner on chin and throat, underparts more buff; immature male like adult female, but tail on average longer and primaries more tapered and pointed; subadult male variable, ranges from like adult female with few adult male feathers intruding to much like aduli male with few female-like feaihers remaining, lacks specialised tail feathers of adult male, acquires progressively longer tail with age, central feather pair more than doubling in length. Race atraius differs from nominate in darker ventral plumage of adult male; uillmus has bill shorter than other races, male differs from nominate in being more black, less brown, on underparts. female in having tail longer and more olive, less rufous.