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Magnificent Riflebird from Jungles in Paris on Vimeo
Birds-of-paradise have some of the most theatrical breeding rituals in the natural world. This avian family's penchant for excessive (and entirely harmless) courtship display is the evolutionary result of millennia of relatively easy living in its native New Guinea. With few predators or inhospitable elements to fight off, females have come to place a higher premium on what we humans might refer to as an "artistic" skill set.
Hence the extravagant plumage, outlandish sounds, and carefully orchestrated dance-like movements one finds among the 39 bird-of-paradise species. Such ornaments are the property of males only, and employed for a single purpose: wooing a mate.
The magnificent riflebird (Ptiloris magnificus) is an especially flamboyant performer. When a male in mating mode senses a female nearby, he switches on. Flicking open his wings like a fan, he proceeds to slice them back and forth through the air, hopping forward and throwing his head from to side to side in rhythm to the whooshing sounds created by the action of his wings.
"The dance actually has a real tempo to it, almost a musicality—and it really demands a coordinated physical effort on the part of the male to make it look just right," says Cornell University ornithologist Dr. Edwin Scholes, who has observed such courtship displays in the wild.
The male throws his head back during this burst of avian flamenco, the better for the female to appreciate his brilliantly iridescent neck feathers. If the feathers strike her fancy, the female will approach. If the whole demonstration does the trick, she'll stick around even longer.
King-of-Saxony from Jungles in Paris on Vimeo
When the first bird-of-paradise specimens arrived in Spain aboard Magellan's ship in 1522, Europeans struggled to believe they were of this planet. To this day, the King of Saxony bird-of-paradise (Pteriodophora alberti) inspires similar doubts. Males of the species flourish antennae-like brow-plumes that are twice as long as their bodies, and their calls sound less like sweet twittering and more like enraged aliens, or a large-scale electronics meltdown -- "an extraordinary screeching, buzzing, hissing call that sounds like anything but a bird," according to Cornell University ornithologist Dr. Edwin Scholes.
As gratuitous as these bizarre attributes may seem, they serve a purpose: attracting a mate. Like most birds-of-paradise species, the King-of-Saxony are endemic to New Guinea, where a warm climate, abundant food, and relative absence of predators have helped make sexual selection a main driver of evolutionary change, rather than more life-or-death imperatives such as temperature regulation or hunting ability. Female King-of-Saxony birds find the outrageous plumage and furious singing of the males appealing, and so over millions of years these traits have become more pronounced.
In the process, the King-of-Saxony birds in particular have become a key part of the high-elevation cloud forests they call home. "The sound that they make is actually one of the defining features of this habitat," Scholes notes. Those males who broadcast most successfully across the treetops have the best chances of passing down their traits -- nothing otherworldly about that.
Carola's Parotia from Jungles in Paris on Vimeo
Whether a male Carola's parotia (Parotia carolae) enjoys dancing for appraising females, scientists and philosophers may never know. But dance he does. He’d better. His ability to procreate hinges on whether he can get the elaborate choreography of his species exactly, irresistibly, right.
Here's how it happens. Before performing, the male prepares his stage by clearing the floor of debris. A series of feather-ruffling warm-up moves helps gather an audience. With the females in attendance, the real dancing begins. It is a series that Cornell ornithologist Dr. Edwin Scholes, who has observed such elaborate displays in the field, refers to as "the bow, walk, pause and waggle." The male first extends his wings out to form a sort of hoop skirt, a remarkable muscular feat in itself. Feathers flared, he proceeds to perform the "Ballerina Dance" and the "Waggle."
It is an exhausting process, this courtship boogie, and the result of considerable training. Young males learn the moves by watching their elders, and before reaching sexual maturity spend hours a day practicing the sequence—either by themselves or with another young male, who for the sake of authenticity plays the role of the observing female.
Once he gets his adult plumage, a male Carola's parotia is ready for showtime. The end goal of this remarkable display is not mere adulation. If it doesn't result in mating, then -- evolutionarily speaking, at least -- it doesn't really serve a purpose.
For more on Cornell Birds-of-Paradise Project, visit www.birdsofparadiseproject.org.
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