Wilson's bird-of-paradise (Diphyllodes respublica) is a species of passerine bird of the family Paradisaeidae.
The first footage of the Wilson's bird-of-paradise ever to be filmed was recorded in 1996 by David Attenborough for the BBC documentary Attenborough in Paradise. He did so by dropping leaves on the forest floor, which irritated the bird into clearing them away.
Nomenclature
The controversial scientific name respublica of this species was given by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's nephew and a republican idealist. The habit of zoologists at that time to dedicate newly discovered species to some king, queen, or aristocrat deeply irritated him. In order to assert his convictions, he chose to name this species respublica to honour the republic and not the royalty.
Charles Lucien Bonaparte described the bird from a badly damaged trade specimen purchased by British ornithologist Edward Wilson. In doing so, he beat John Cassin, who wanted to name the bird in honour of Wilson, by several months. Thirteen years later, in 1863, the German zoologist Heinrich Agathon Bernstein discovered the home grounds of the Wilson's bird-of-paradise on Waigeo Island.
Distribution
An Indonesian endemic, the Wilson's bird-of-paradise is distributed to the hill and lowland rainforests of Waigeo and Batanta Islands off West Papua.
Due to ongoing habitat loss, limited range, and exploitation, the Wilson's bird-of-paradise is evaluated as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Habitat
Its preferred habitat is the hill forest at 300 m of altitude, more rarely the lowland rainforest and the middle mountain forest. The male is a red and black bird-of-paradise, with a yellow mantle on its neck, light green mouth, rich blue feet, and two curved violet tail feathers. The head is naked blue, with a black double cross pattern on it. The female is a brownish bird with a bare blue crown.
In the field, the blue bare skin on the crown of the bird's head is so vivid that it is clearly visible by night; the deep scarlet back and velvet green breast are lush, the curlicue tail gleaming bright silver.
Diet
Their diet consists of fruits, insects, arthropods, and other small invertebrates.
Rituals of seduction
Males of this species clear an area of rainforest to create a 'display court'. Here, they perform an elaborate mating dance to impress a potential mate. The male usually exhibits its breast shield and accompanies the mating dance with vocalizations described as "squeaky twittering interspersed with guttural notes."
Courtship behavior
Male Wilson's birds-of-paradise are the most colorful of all the species within the family, possessing a veritable rainbow of color. This remarkable example of hue and iridescence possesses all of the primary colors (and more) in different ways. The baby blue hue of its head is skin, not feathers, and is the result of structural color absent in any other member of birds-of-paradise. Because this species is polygynous, where one male mates with multiple females, the female is left on her own to raise young, forcing her to assess these indirect genetic benefits through courtship rituals, details of which are in the following section. Males will continually work to keep this area free of debris, making sure that nothing on the ground will distract from their displays.