Epimachus meyeri Finsch & Meyer, AB, 1885

Large paradisaeid with long, sickle-shaped bill and long, graduated tail with greatly elongated sabre-shaped central rectrices. Male nominate race has entire head black, in certain lights scale-like feathers of crown and face showing metallic green-blue iridescence with purple and/or magenta washes, chin, throat and entire neck black with iridescent magenta feather tipping; black above, mantle and back with green-blue and/ or magenta sheens, modified large scale-like central back feathers highly iridescent metallic blue-green, rump with purple or plum gloss: velvety black upperwing with variable blue-green, blue to purple or plum gloss or sheen: brownish-black uppertail with blue iridescent sheen on outer webs, elongated central feather pair iridescent metallic green-blue and/or magenta; dark brown breast, increasingly washed with plum-purple at side; greatly enlarged axehead-shaped pectoral plumes black with metallic dark magenta iridescence, shorter overlying ones broadly tipped iridescent metallic blue, purple and/or violet; elongate modified feathers on each side of breast, belly and vent with highly iridescent metallic purple and/or magenta broad (but tapering) tips, sparse filamental flank plumes variable fawn-brown with paler, straw-coloured, central shafts; vent and undertail-coverts olive-brown; iris pale chalk-blue; bill black, mouth bright yellow; legs dark greyish to blackish. Female is markedly smaller than male, particularly in tail, has plumage radically different, lacking iridescence; cryptically coloured in various dark browns dorsally, but more reddish-brown on forehead, crown and nape, darker brown upperwing with raw umber edging to remiges and greater coverts; face blackish, chin and throat dark sooty-brown, finely flecked dull buff, underparts greyish-white to light buff with regular blackish-brown barring throughout, slightly paler barring towards rear. Juvenile is like adult female, but crown and mantle brighter and more rust-coloured, general plumage soft and fluffy, especially on abdomen; immature male like adult female, but tail longer; subadult male variable, from much like adult female with few feathers of adult male plumage intruding to like adult male but with few female-like feathers remaining, young male first acquires darker crown than adult female and blackish feathering around eyes, lores, bill, chin and upper throat, followed by adult head plumage and then, with subsequent moults, an increasing proportion of adult plumage; male acquires progressively longer tail with age, central feather pair more than doubling in length. Race bloodi is similar lo nominate but is considerably smaller, with male flank plumes paler, rather more dirty whitish; albicans is also similar to nominate but is slightly smaller, with male flank plumes whitish.