Greater Bird-of-Paradise
Paradisaea apoda
Aves
RARE
Stats
- Lifespan
- 5-8 yrs
- Size
- Large
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Activity
- Diurnal
- Social
- Solitary
- Biome
- Tropical rainforest
- Range
- New Guinea
- Movement
- Flight
- Breeding
- Egg-laying
- Defense
- Camouflage
- Status
- Rare
About
The Greater Bird-of-Paradise is famous for the male's extravagant cascade of golden-yellow and white flank plumes, fanned out in elaborate courtship dances on communal display trees. Early European specimens arrived as skinless, footless trade skins — earning the species its name *apoda*, meaning "without feet," and fuelling the legend that these birds never touched the ground.
Life cycle
- 1.eggA small clutch of speckled eggs is incubated in a cup nest, turned and kept warm by the parent.
- 2.hatchlingA pink, blind hatchling is fed by its parents in the nest, gaping its bill at every visit.
- 3.juvenileA feathered juvenile fledges from the nest, learning to fly and to forage close to its parents.
- 4.adultFully grown with adult plumage and song.
Learn more
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Paradisaeidae
- Genus
- Paradisaea
- Species
- Paradisaea apoda