Eastern Parotia
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| Parotia helenae De Vis, 1897 |
The Eastern Parotia, Parotia helenae also known as Helena's Parotia is a medium-sized, up to 27cm long, passerine bird of the Paradisaeidae family. The male has an iridescent golden green breast shield, elongated black plumes, three erectile spatule head wires behind each blue iris eye and golden brown nasal tuft feathers. The female is smaller than male, with brown plumage and black barred below.
Its appearance resembles and sometimes considered as a subspecies of the Lawes's Parotia, being different only from the male's frontal crest and female's dorsal plumages color. As do other Parotia, the male is polygamous and performs spectacular courtship display in the forest ground.
The Eastern Parotia is distributed and endemic to mountain forests of southeast Papua New Guinea.
The scientific name commemorates Princess Helena Augusta Victoria, the third daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.
A common species throughout its limited range, the Eastern Parotia is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Parotia helenae. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
