Fantastic flights

When it comes to courtship,  birds of paradise are truly amazing and as varied as their colors. The adult males have plumes, frills, capes, quills, lacy feathers, and/or skirts, with tails that may look like expandable fans, whips, twisted wires, and more, depending on the species. Those tails may look beautiful, but they are not very helpful for flight. Instead, they are meant to help the male show off any number of fantastic dance moves to attract as many females as possible and to outdo rivals.  The  king bird-of-paradise  ( Cicinnurus regius ) is a  passerine  bird of the  Paradisaeidae  (Bird-of-paradise) family. It is the sole member of the genus  Cicinnurus . The king  bird-of-paradise is distributed throughout lowland forests of New Guinea and nearby islands. The diet consists mainly of fruits and arthropods. An extraordinary courtship display is performed by the male with a series of tail swing...

  No other bird group is so beautiful  or so rich in variety of plumage and behavior as the birds of paradise. They are usually heavy-billed and rather stout birds, but there are many species, each having its own unique look and colors. Birds of paradise range from the size of a starling to the size of a crow. And that doesn't include the male's feathery tail that can be up to 3 feet (1 meter) long, depending on species!  The  greater lophorina  or  greater superb bird-of-paradise  ( Lophorina superba ) is a species of the  Paradisaeidae  ( bird-of-paradise ) family. It was considered the sole species in the genus until in 2017 it was recognised that there were three species (L. superba,  Lophorina minor , and  Lophorina niedda ). It is a small, approximately 26 cm long, (passerine) bird. The male is black with an iridescent green crown, blue-green breast cover and a long velvety black erectile cape covering his ba...

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 ...