WESTERN PAROTIA - BIRD OF PARADISE


For many years the birds-of-paradise were treated as being closely related to the bowerbirds. Today while both are treated as being part of the Australasian lineage Corvida, the two are now thought to be only distantly related. The closest evolutionary relatives of the birds-of-paradise are the crow and jay family Corvidae, the monarch flycatchers Monarchidae and the Australian mudnesters Struthideidae.
The western or Arfak parotia (Parotia sefilata), is a medium-sized, approximately 33 cm long, bird-of-paradise with a medium-length tail.


Like other birds-of-paradise, the western parotia is sexually dimorphic. The male has black plumage with an iridescent structurally coloured golden-green breast shield and triangular silver feathers on its crown. It is adorned with elongated black plumes at the sides of the breast and three erectile spatulate head wires behind each eye. As with most member in the family, the female is unadorned and has brown plumage. The species is similar to Lawes's parotia (Parotia lawesii ).



Endemic to Indonesia, the western parotia is found only in the mountain forests of Vogelkop and the Wandammen Peninsula of Western New Guinea.
In courtship display, the male performs a ballerina-like dance with its elongated black plumes spread around skirt-like, right below the iridescent breast shield. During the spectacular dance, he shakes his head and neck rapidly to show the brilliance of his inverted silver triangle-shaped head adornment to attending females.
The nest is built and attended by the female alone. The species is polygynous.
The diet consists mainly of fruits such as figs, and arthropods.
A widespread and common species throughout its range, the western parotia is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES.
-Taken from Wikipedia 

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