GREATER BIRD-OF-PARADISE: CHARACTERISTICS, BEHAVIOR, DISPLAY AND REPRODUCTION

GREATER BIRD-OF-PARADISE

male greater bird-of-paradise displaying

Greater birds-of-paradise (Paradisaea apoda) are found in the lowlands and hill forests of southwest New Guinea and Aru Islands of Indonesia. They mainly feed on fruits, seeds and small insects. Greater bird-of-paradise are a symbol of the soul and eternal life among the islands where they are found. Some have said these birds may have inspired the Chinese phoenix myth which was later introduced to Europe although most scholars trace the phoenix myth to ancient Egypt or ancient Persia. [Source: "Ring of Fire" by Lawrence and Lorne Blair, Bantam Books, New York]

Carl Linnaeus named the species Paradisaea apoda — "legless bird-of-paradise" — because the early specimens that reach Europe were prepared without wings or feet by local New Guinean people. This led to the belief that these birds were visitors from paradise that were kept aloft by their beautiful plumes and never touched the earth until the died.

Greater birds-of-paradise are not endangered. They are fairly common throughout their native range. They are listed as a species of Least Concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. In CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild) they are in Appendix II, which lists species not necessarily threatened with extinction now but that may become so unless trade is closely controlled. /=\

A small population of greater birds-of-paradise was introduced by Sir William Ingram in 1909-1912 to Little Tobago Island of West Indies in an attempt to save the species from extinction due to overhunting for feathers. The introduced populations survived until at least 1966, but most likely are now extinct. The bird still appears on Trinidad and Tobago's $100 bill. [Source: Wikipedia]

Greater Birds-of-Paradise Characteristics and Diet

Breeding range of the greater Bird-of-paradise (yellow) and the Raggiana bird-of-paradise (orange); the striped area is where hybrids and mixed leks occur

Greater birds-of-paradise (Paradisaea apoda) are the largest member in the genus Paradisaea. Males measure up to 43 centimeters (17 inches), excluding the long twin tail wires, and the bigger females reach 48 centimeters (19 inches). [Source: Wikipedia]

The plumage of these birds is sexually dimorphic as is their size. Males have an iridescent green face and a yellow glossed with silver iridescence crown, head and nape. The rest of the body plumage is maroon-brown. The flank plumes, used in displays, are yellow at the base, turning white and streaked with maroon. Females have unbarred maroon brown plumage. Both sexes have yellow irises and blue bills.

Greater birds-of-paradise are frugivorous (eat frut) and insectivores (eat insects). They sometimes consume specific fruits, such as those from certain mahogany and nutmeg trees, and play an important role in dispersing the seeds of these and other plant species they consume. Fruits are swallowed whole, and seeds pass through their digestive system intact and excreted in the the birds' guano, within which there is enough nitrogen and other elements present to germinate.

Greater Birds-of-Paradise Behavior and Communication

Alfred Russel Wallace noted in “The Malay Archipelago” that greater birds-of-paradise become active before sunrise, when their loud “wawk-wawk, w k-w k-w k” noises as they move around in the forest searching for food. Females may forage in small groups along with other species.

Males use eight different calls, commonly referred to as “wauks” during their courtship displays. Each is linked to a section of the courtship dance: 1) The rising call is a series of four or five “wauks” repeated at one-second intervals. The first two notes are of approximately equal volume and the subsequent two or three are of increasing volume and intensity. 2) The rapid wauk call is a series of quick “wauks”, all of equal volume, delivered in bursts of several per second, accompanied by wingbeats. These calls are usually performed when a female is in the vicinity and in correlation with pose one. 3) The wing pose call is the only non-“wauk” call. It consists of piercing “ee-ak” notes repeated multiple times. This call is accompanied by the posing of the wings (pose 1) and alternates with the rapid wauk call.

4) The pump call is a much faster version of the rapid wauk call. It is so fast the wauks seem to merge together into a single sound of “wa-wa-wa.” These calls last up to ten seconds. 5) The Baa call is a nasal call that follows the pump call. Males combine several “baa” calls with movements into pose three. 6) The nasal call is a more sudden and nasally version of the baa call. Males make this call after leaving the primary viewing branch around the court. 7) Click calls. 8) The Chugich call can be performed prior to the click call or after the nasal call. It consists of a guttural “chug’ich” call.

Greater Birds-of-Paradise Reproduction

female greater bird-of-paradise

Breeding for greater birds-of-paradise is not strictly seasonal. It generally occurs at least between March and May and between August and December but can occur during other parts of the year as well. Females build and attend nests alone, laying up to seven eggs in a clutch. They are known to hybridise with Raggiana birds-of-paradise. [Source: Australia Museum]

Polygynous males display in trees in leks (gatherings of male birds that perform courtship displays to attract females) above the ground in a “court” (lek). They display this way as opposed to displaying individually and up to 15 adult males comprise a a single lek,

Females choose male mates based on their displays. This regarded as an indirect way of gaining genetic benefits which increase offspring fitness. Since males do not contribute to offspring through parental care females assess male fitness through courtship rituals.

Males spend the majority of their time during mating seasons at their respective display grounds. They begin calling before sunrise and cease shortly after sunset. They feed very briefly and infrequently, moving away from display grounds in the heat of the afternoon, and returning before dusk.

Dance and Displays of Greater Birds-of-Paradise Males

During their courtship displays, male greater birds-of-paradise initially congregate around common display areas on a secondary perch, away from the main viewing perches available, and flap their wings rapidly. When they move to the main viewing perches they erect their large plumes on their rumps over their backs and extend their wings (Pose 1). Then they depress their bodies close to the branches that they are on, retract their wings, leave their tail plumes erected, and prance or charge along their branch (Pose 2).

After this, the birds freeze with their bills pointed downwards, wings extended once again, and tail plumes still upright (Pose 3). Males assume this last position, referred to as the “flower position” when females are present, for inspection purposes, but refrain and remain in position two, moving in synchrony, when females are absent.

Males often visit each other’s display grounds, located relatively close to each other, but will perform the majority of their displays at a common court. Other courtship behaviors outside of the physical dance can consist of bill-wiping, in which the male pauses the dance and brushes both sides of his beak on the branch, as well as leaf-tearing, hanging upside down from the branch, and vocalizations.

Alfred Russel Wallace on the Great Bird of Paradise

Alfred Russel Wallace wrote in the “The Malay Archipelago”: “The Great Bird of Paradise (Paradisea apoda of Linnaeus) is the largest species known, being generally seventeen or eighteen inches from the beak to the tip of the tail. The body, wings, and tail are of a rich coffee-brown, which deepens on the breast to a blackish-violet or purple-brown. The whole top of the head and neck is of an exceedingly delicate straw-yellow, the feathers being short and close set, so as to resemble plush or velvet; the lower part of the throat up to the eye clothed with scaly feathers of an emerald, green colour, and with a rich metallic gloss, and velvety plumes of a still deeper green extend in a band across the forehead and chin as far as the eye, which is bright yellow. The beak is pale lead blue; and the feet, which are rather large and very strong and well formed, are of a pale ashy-pink. The two middle feathers of the tail have no webs, except a very small one at the base and at the extreme tip, forming wire-like cirrhi, which spread out in an elegant double curve, and vary from twenty-four to thirty-four inches long. From each side of the body, beneath the wings, springs a dense tuft of long and delicate plumes, sometimes two feet in length, of the most intense golden-orange colour and very glossy, but changing towards the tips into a pale brown. This tuft of plumage cam be elevated and spread out at pleasure, so as almost to conceal the body of the bird. [Source: Alfred Russel Wallace, “The Malay Archipelago,” published in London in 1869 ]

“These splendid ornaments are entirely confined to the male sex, while the female is really a very plain and ordinary-looking bird of a uniform coffee-brown colour which never changes, neither does she possess the long tail wires, nor a single yellow or green feather about the dead. The young males of the first year exactly resemble the females, so that they can only be distinguished by dissection. The first change is the acquisition of the yellow and green colour on the head and throat, and at the same time the two middle tail feathers grow a few inches longer than the rest, but remain webbed on both sides. At a later period these feathers are replaced by the long bare shafts of the full length, as in the adult bird; but there is still no sign of the magnificent orange side-plumes, which later still complete the attire of the perfect male. To effect these changes there must be at least three successive moultings; and as the birds were found by me in all the stages about the same time, it is probable that they moult only once a year, and that the full plumage is not acquired till the bird is four years old. It was long thought that the fine train of feathers was assumed for a short time only at the breeding season, but my own experience, as well as the observation of birds of an allied species which I brought home with me, and which lived two years in this country, show that the complete plumage is retained during the whole year, except during a short period of moulting as with most other birds.

“The Great Bird of Paradise is very active and vigorous and seems to be in constant motion all day long. It is very abundant, small flocks of females and young male being constantly met with; and though the full-plumaged birds are less plentiful, their loud cries, which are heard daily, show that they also are very numerous. Their note is, "Wawk-wawk-wawk-Wok-wok-wok," and is so loud and shrill as to be heard a great distance, and to form the most prominent and characteristic animal sound in the Aru Islands. The mode of nidification is unknown; but the natives told me that the nest was formed of leaves placed on an ant's nest, or on some projecting limb of a very lofty tree, and they believe that it contains only one young bird. The egg is quite unknown, and the natives declared they had never seen it; and a very high reward offered for one by a Dutch official did not meet with success. They moult about January or February, and in May, when they are in full plumage, the males assemble early in the morning to exhibit themselves in the singular manner already described at p. 252. This habit enables the natives to obtain specimens with comparative ease. As soon as they find that the birds have fled upon a tree on which to assemble, they build a little shelter of palm leaves in a convenient place among the branches, and the hunter ensconces himself in it before daylight, armed with his bow and a number of arrows terminating in a round knob. A boy waits at the foot of the tree, and when the birds come at sunrise, and a sufficient number have assembled, and have begun to dance, the hunter shoots with his blunt arrow so strongly as to stun the bird, which drops down, and is secured and killed by the boy without its plumage being injured by a drop of blood. The rest take no notice, and fall one after another till some of them take the alarm.

The native mode of preserving them is to cut off the wings and feet, and then skin the body up to the beak, taking out the skull. A stout stick is then run up through the specimen coming out at the mouth. Round this some leaves are stuffed, and the whole is wrapped up in a palm spathe and dried in the smoky hut. By this plan the head, which is really large, is shrunk up almost to nothing, the body is much reduced and shortened, and the greatest prominence is given to the flowing plumage. Some of these native skins are very clean, and often have wings and feet left on; others are dreadfully stained with smoke, and all hive a most erroneous idea of the proportions of the living bird.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated February 2025