Ptiloris magnificus Vieillot, 1819

Fairly large paradisaied with long, decurved bill and short, rather square-ended graduated tail, Male nominate race has velvety jet-black head decorated from lores to nape with scale-like metallic green-blue feathers washed purple and magenta: sides of face, chin and throat dully iridescent violet-purple and/or (rarely) olive-green; mantle to uppertail-coverts, lesser wing-coverts and tenials velvety jet-black with strong iridescence of violet-purple with magenta wash (and, rarely, blues and/or olive-green sheen visible), greater covens, alula and exposed flight-feathers iridescent dark blue; uppertail velvety jet-biack, iridescent deep blue sheen on basal outer edges of webs, but shorter central feather pair highly iridescent metallic dark blue-green to green-blue with violet-purple and/or magenta sheens; narrow area on central throat broadening to upper breast decorated with extensive delta-shaped breast shield of scale-like intensely iridescent greenish-blue feathers, in some lights washed with violet-purple and/or magenta sheens; lower shield edge bordered by narrow band of velvety jet-black feathers with violet-purple sheen, and below this even narrower band of iridescent bronzed yellow-green; remaining underparts, including elongate filamental flank plumes (extending past tail), matt brownish-black, overwashed with dully iridescent maroon to carmine and/or (rarely) olive-green, particularly against breaslband; vent and undertail-coverts, also tips of longer flank plumes, matt blackish; iris dark brown; bill black, gape pale yellow, mouth pale lemon-yellow to lime-green; legs dark leaden grey to blackish, Female is smaller than male, with slightly shorter bill (unlike congeners) and. especially, shorter wing (no overlap between sexes): plumage radically different, cryptically brown and rufous above, with broad supercilium and malar stripe dirty white, finely flecked variably buff to brown, chin whitish to greyish-white, throat flecked and spotted blackish-grey, these marks grading to fine barring on breast and then to broader and paler barring on greyish-white remaining of underparts. Juvenile has plumage soft, more downy, dark bars on breast and belly sooty brown and wider apart, crown and upperparts paler and more rufous; immature male like adult female; subadull variable, like adult female with few feathers of adult male plumage intruding to like adult male with few feathers of female-like plumage remaining; with increasing age male acquires progressively shorter tail, central retrices decreasing in length at greater rate than rest. Races differ only minimally, mainly in biometrics: alberti is like nominate, but base of culmen slightly less feathered, bill more curved, shoner wing, tarsus and tail, male with only faint maroon sheen below, relatively shorter central pair of rectrices, female browner (less rufous-tinged) above and lacks speckling on upper throat; intercedens is like nominate, but bill on average shorter, base of culmen with more feathering. Hank plumes shorter (not extending beyond tail),