Seleucidis melanoleucus Daudin, 1800

Male nominate race has entire head velvety black with iridescent coppery olive-green sheen, entire crown with purple iridescence; upperparts, including lesser upperwing-coverts, velvety black with iridescent oily sheen of coppery olive-green (washed purple in some lights); greater wing-coverts, alula, tertials, secondaries and uppertail iridescent violet-purple and/or magenta, primaries black; chin, throat and entire breast velvety black with slight coppery yellowish-green iridescent sheen; large feathers bordering lower breast broadly tipped iridescent emerald-green, with violet-purple adjacent bases, forming gorget that extends up each side of breast; elongate and dense breast feathers form extensive breast "cushion"; remaining underparts, including grossly elongated, inwardly curving filamentous flank feathers, brilliant yellow; white central shaft of six flank plumes on each side grossly elongated beyond webs into black "wires" that, after recurving upwards, are again white; iris bright blood-red; black postocular stripe of bare skin; long, slightly decurved bill shiny black, mouth aqua-green; legs (including bare thighs) pink. Female is smaller than male, but with tail much longer; plumage radically different, cryptically drab-coloured, upper head and upper mantle sooty black with dull iridescent purple sheen, remaining mantle and entire uppcrparts chestnut-brown, paler on exposed primaries; malar area, throat and upper breast greyish-white, flecked, spotted and then uniformly barred blackish, as are remaining underparts; black postocular stripe of bare skin; bright pink tarsus. Juvenile undescribed; immature male like adult female (tail longer than adult male), also sometimes paler, washed with sandy orange-yellow and/or with brown base of lower mandible, iris pale brown, turning yellow with age; subadult male variable, from like adult female but with few feathers of adult male plumage intruding to like adult male with few- remaining feathers of female-like plumage; with age, iris changes from yellow to almost red, and male progressively acquires grossly shorter tail. Race auripennis is smaller than nominate, notably in bill length, female underparts darker, more brownish, and more heavily barred than nominate.