Blue Bird-of-paradise

The Blue Bird-of-paradise is endemic to Papua New Guinea. It is distributed to mountain forests of southeastern New Guinea. ITIS recognizes only one subspecies, but additional subspecies margaritae and ampla have been described.

The Blue Bird-of-paradise is classified as Vulnerable (VU), considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.

The Blue Bird-of-paradise is listed as vulnerable due to habitat loss Societies of New Guinea often use bird-of-paradise plumes in their dress and rituals, and the plumes were popular in Europe in past centuries as adornment for ladies' millinery. Hunting for plumes and habitat destruction have reduced some species to endangered status; habitat destruction due to deforestation is now the predominant threat. More

The Blue Bird-of-paradise, Paradisaea rudolphi, is a medium-sized, approximately 30 cm long, black bird-of-paradise with a bluish-white bill, dark brown iris, grey legs, broken white eye-ring and bright blue wings. The male is adorned with violet blue and cinnamon flank plumes and two long ribbon-like tail feathers. The female has a chestnut brown below. The Blue Bird-of-paradise is endemic to Papua New Guinea. It is distributed to mountain forests of southeastern New Guinea. More

Endemic to Papua New Guinea, the blue bird-of-paradise is found to the east of the Central Ranges (1). View a distribution map for this species at UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Habitat - Inhabits tropical and subtropical moist forest (2), usually between 1,400 and 1,800 metres above sea level (1). Biology - Birds-of-paradise use their spectacular plumage in displays to attract mates (4). More

Blue Bird-of-paradise was discovered by Carl Hunstein in 1884. The scientific name commemorates the ill-fated Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria. Due to ongoing habitat loss, limited range, small population size and hunting in some areas for its highly prized plumes, the rare Blue Bird-of-paradise is classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES. Read more at Wikipedia This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. More