Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise
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| Seleucidis melanoleucus (Daudin, 1800) |
The Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise, Seleucidis melanoleucus is a medium-sized, approximately 33cm-long, velvet black and yellow bird of paradise. The male has a red iris, long black bill and rich yellow plumes along its flanks. From the rear of these plumes emerge twelve blackish, wire-like filaments, which bend back near their bases to sweep forward over the birds hindquarters. The female is a brown bird with black-barred buffy underparts. Its feet are strong, large-clawed and pink in color.
The sole representative of the monotypic genus Seleucidis, the Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise is a bird of lowland forests. The male displays on an exposed vertical perch with its breast-shield flared. Its diet consists mainly of fruits and arthropods.
Widely distributed throughout New Guinea and Salawati Island of Irian Jaya, the Twelve-wired 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] Conservation
Although the Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise is only considered LC, it is very difficult to captivly breed. It has only been successfully bred in Singapore's Jurong Bird Park.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Seleucidis melanoleucus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 1 November 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
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