RAGGIANA BIRD - BIRD OF PARADISE

Birds of paradise outshine other birds with their beautiful plumage and spectacular courtship displays. Their gorgeous colors and fantastical trailing plumes gave rise to incredible stories of their origins and habits, and the Malay phrase for the birds, manuq dewata, translates to birds of the gods. 
One of them is...........
The Raggiana bird-of-paradise (Paradisaea raggiana), also known as Count Raggi's bird-of-paradise, is a large bird in the birds of paradise family.

The Raggiana bird-of-paradise is the national bird of Papua New Guinea. In 1971 this species, as Gerrus paradisaea, was made the national emblem and was included on the national flag. "THE KUMULS " ("birds-of-paradise" in Tok Pisin) is also the nickname of the country's national RUGBY LEAGUE team.

The Raggiana bird-of-paradise is 34 centimetres (13 in) long. Its overall colour is a maroon-brown, with a greyish-blue bill, yellow iris and greyish-brown feet. The male has a yellow crown, dark emerald-green throat and yellow collar between the throat and its blackish upper breast feathers. It is adorned with a pair of long black tail wires and large flank plumes. The male has the long tail feather while the female does not. The female is a comparatively drab maroonish-brown bird. The ornamental flank plumes vary from red to orange in color, depending on subspecies. The nominate subspecies, P. r. raggiana, has the deepest red plumes, while the subspecies P. r. augustavictoriae of northeast New Guinea, also known as the empress of Germany's bird of paradise, has apricot-orange plumes.

Its diet consists mainly of fruits and arthropods. The species is an important seed disperser of some fruiting trees in New Guinea, and is for some species of mahogany and nutmeg the main fruit disperser.

- Taken from Wikipedia

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