Greater Bird of Paradise
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 Paradisaea apoda, male - Field Museum
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| Paradisaea apoda Linnaeus, 1758 |
The Greater Bird of Paradise, Paradisaea apoda, is a large, up to 43cm long, maroon brown bird of paradise with a yellow crown, dark emerald green throat and blackish brown breast cushion. The male is adorned with large yellow ornamental flank plumes and a pair of long tail wires. The female has unbarred maroon brown plumage.
The largest member in the genus Paradisaea, the Greater Bird of Paradise is distributed to lowland and hill forests of southwest New Guinea and Aru Islands, Indonesia. The diet consists mainly of fruits, seeds and small insects. A small population 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 plume trades. The introduced populations survived until at least 1958 and most likely are extinct now.
Carolus Linnaeus named the species Paradisaea apoda, or "legless bird of paradise", because early trade-skins to reach Europe were prepared without feet by natives; this lead to the misconception that these birds were beautiful visitors from paradise that floated in the air and never touched the earth until death.
A common species throughout its native range, the Greater Bird of Paradise 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). Paradisaea apoda. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 09 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
