Ptiloris magnificus
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),
Not Threatened
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)
Male 34 cm, 143-230 g; female 28 cm, 94-3 85 g
Taxonomy: Falcinellus magnificus Vieillot, 1819, Dorey, Vogelkop, New Guinea. Sometimes thought to form a superspecies with P. victoriae, and has been considered conspecific. Intergeneric hybridization with Lophorina superba, Seleucidis melanoleucus and Paradisaea minor recorded. Race intercedens sometimes treated as separate species. Three subspecies currently recognized. (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)
Subspecies and Distribution:
- * magnificus ( Vieillot, 1819) - W & C New Guinea from Vogelkop E to Wewak area in N and, in S, to Purari R. * intercedens Sharpe, 1882 - E New Guinea SE from about Wanuma (Adelbert Mts). * alberti Elliot, 1871 - Albany I and patchily on adjacent Cape York Peninsula (S to Weipa area on W coast and to Rocky R area of McIlwraith Range on E), in NE Australia.
Lowland forest, hill forest and middle montane forest, also monsoon forest, swamp-forest, and gallery forest and forest edge: occasionally in mangroves and timber plantations. Sea-level mainly to 700 m, occasionally or locally to 1450 m.
Fruits (mostly capsules) and animals, latter including wide variety of insects, spiders and myriapods; overall a greater proportion of arthropods eaten, but relative proportions vary seasonally. Forages mostly in main canopy for fruits, but gleans/probes in lower canopy and subcanopy for animals. Forages alone, occasionally with small groups of loosely associated individuals at fruiting trees;joins (female-plumaged birds possibly more so than adult males) mixed-species foraging flocks containing pitohuis and other paradisaeid species.
Season variable across range, at least Jun-Feb, females with enlarged oocytes Feb, Jun, Jul and Oct-Nov and some males with moderately to greatly enlarged gonads during all months (but smallest Feb-Mar); egg-laying early Sept to mid-Feb but also early Jun in SE New Guinea (Moroka area), and nestlings (one nest) Nov and presumed female attending dependent young late Sept in NE Australia; display late wet season to throughout dry season, Apr—Sept near Port Moresby (SE New Guinea). Polygynous, solitary promiscuous male advertisement-singing/displaying from several traditional perches; female builds and attends nest alone. Males regularly dispersed through forest (c. 500 m apart at Ok Tedi, in C New Guinea), but territoriality unconfirmed, Male displays with initially static sleeked postures, then raising fully opened wings high to each side, with head and neck swung between them, followed by vigorously animated hopping along horizontal display bough (unlike P. victoriae, not atop a vertical stump) while in this pose; courtship mostly in lower understorey to subcanopy. Nest composed of large dead leaves and vine tendrils loosely put together, sometimes epiphytic fems fronds included, lined with fine leaf midribs and fibres; recorded sites used in Australia include base of living fronds of pandanus tree crown, atop basket-fern epiphytes on tree trunk, and atop broken-off trunk with new regrowth, variously 0,5-16 m above ground. Clutch 1-2 eggs, mostly 2; no information on incubation and nestling periods.