| Astrapia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Ribbon-tailed astrapia (Astrapia mayeri) | |
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Paradisaeidae |
| Genus: | Astrapia Vieillot, 1816 |
| Type species | |
| Paradisea nigra Gmelin, JF, 1788 | |
Astrapia (Vieillot, 1816) is agenus ofbirds-of-paradise. The genus contains five species, all endemic toNew Guinea. The males have highlyiridescent plumage and remarkably long tails. Females are duller and have shorter tails.
Barnes's astrapia is a hybrid produced by the interbreeding ofPrincess Stephanie's astrapia and theribbon-tailed astrapia.[1]
The genusAstrapia was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologistLouis Pierre Vieillot to accommodate the Arfak astrapia, which therefore becomes thetype species.[2][3] The genus name is derived fromAncient Greekastrapios orastrapaios meaning "of lightning".[4]
The genus is suggested to bemonophyletic, roughly six million years old, and forms a sister-group with the two species in the genusParadigalla.[5]Astrapia andParadigalla are members of a larger clade that includes the other long-tail birds-of-paradise from the genusEpimachus.[6]
The genus contains five species:[7]
Within the genus,A. nigra andA. splendidissima are sister species, which together are sister to a clade that includesA. rothschildi,A. mayeri andA. stephaniae withA. rothschildi as the basal member.[8]
.jpg)
The five species of the genusAstrapia are endemic toNew Guinea in the mountains ofVolgelkop, the central ranges and theHuon Peninsula. Of these, three areallopatric—A. nigra,A. splendidissima andA. rothschildi. The other two—A. mayeri andA. stephaniae—overlap with each other at the margins of their respective elevation ranges in a small part ofPapua New Guinea's central highlands.[1][5]
All species withinAstrapia exhibitsexual dimorphism. Adult males appear mostly jet-black under most lighting conditions, with highly iridescent greenish-blue heads, an intensely reflective coppery-orange band on the upper breast and either a deep violet (nearly black) or mostly white tail.[6] The three allopatric species also have iridescent green lower abdomen. Adult females are duller blackish-brown, with smaller, white smudged tails running down their lengths.[9]
Breeding behaviors are not well known, but all species are thought to bepolygamous, with promiscuous males that use arboreal display sites, and with females providing all parental care.[9] Summaries from species accounts indicate a few simple behaviors including a form of hoping back and forth between branches and an inverted display posture in A. rothschildi.[6] At traditional sites in the forest canopy,Astrapia stephaniae is known to formleks.[6][10]
There are seven distinct malecourtship displays that have been documented: perch-hopping, pivoting, inverted tail-fanning, nape-pecking, post-copulatory tumbling, upright sleeked posturing and branch-sidling.[6] Of the male behaviors, perch-hopping is the most broadly distributed among all species butA. nigra. In all of them, the displaying bird moves quickly between multiple branches by hopping or making short flight-hops. InA. rothschildi, hopping between perches sometimes includes chasing females (or female plumaged individuals). It is unclear if chasing is a component of perch-hopping in the other species.[6]
A type of pivot display is known from two species,A. rothschildi andA. mayeri. In both, it involves repeatedly moving in a ritualized fashion from side-to-side with feet more-or-less in a fixed position. The most distinctive feature of theA. rothschildi pivot is wing flicking, whereas inA. mayeri the most distinctive features are the very ritualized hunchbacked posture and the highly exaggerated swishing movement of the male's long ribbon-like tail.[6]
TheArfak astrapia and theHuon astrapia have a distinctive and specialized display behavior, which is called the inverted tail-fan display. When the abdominal feathers are sky-oriented during the display, their green iridescent feathers (that would appear otherwise dark) become highly visible; thesplendid astrapia also has highly iridescent green abdominal plumage, which raises the question about if it too has an undocumented inverted display behavior.
Media related toAstrapia at Wikimedia CommonsGenera ofcorvides and their extinct allies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ThisParadisaeidae-related article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |
