Short-tailed paradigalla "Paradigalla brevicauda"

 Description

This is a species of bird of paradise. Short-tailed paradigalla is endemic to Papua New Guinea highland forest. It is the least concern on the ICUN red list of threatened species.  This medium size species considered to breed polygynously.

 

SUBFAMILY

Paradisaeinae

 

TAXONOMY

Paradigalla brevicauda Rothschild and Hartert, 1911, Mount

Goliath, central Dutch New Guinea.

 

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: Short-tailed wattled bird of paradise; French: Paradisier à queue courte; German: Langschwanz-Paradigalla; Spanish: Paradigalla de Cola Corta.

 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

9.0 in (23 cm); female 0.4–0.38 (155–170 g), male 0.35–0.41 lb (160–184 g). Head, upperparts, and underparts a velvety black. Yellowish green crown to nape and small, light blue wattle at the mandible base. Conspicuous bright yellow fore face. Blackish bill and legs.

 

DISTRIBUTION

Western and central ranges of New Guinea mainland from the Weyland Mountains eastward to the Bismark Range at altitudes of 4,590–8,460 ft (1,400–2,580 m). Maybe on the Kratke Range, Papua New Guinea, but unrecorded to date.

 

HABITAT

Midmontane forests, including beech, forest/garden edges, secondary growth.

 

BEHAVIOR

Birds give a rising bell-like zheee call at about 490 ft (150 m) intervals in moss forest, suggestive of dispersed solitary males advertising from song posts. In-flight, wings make an audible rattling or rustling.

 

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Omnivorous, predominantly frugivorous, but little known. Birds acrobatically cling to tree boughs and trunks to tear and probe into epiphytic plant growth for invertebrates and small vertebrates. Nestlings fed a large proportion (65%) of animals, including earthworms, insect larvae, crickets, beetles, mantids, katydids, spiders, frogs, and skinks.

 

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Polygynous, with presumed promiscuous males and exclusively female nest attendance. Breeding on the Tari Valley slopes recorded in all months except March and November. Nest is a substantial, deep, open cup and the clutch is one egg. Incubation lasts more than 19 days and a known nestling period was 25 days.

 

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not threatened.