Profile
In flight
Birds of Paradise
Twelve-wired Bird-of-paradise
Seleucidis melanoleucus
- rare
- 43 km/h
- Least Concern
Males have 12 bare wire plumes that they brush across the female's face during courtship. Delivery method: theatrical.
- Population
- Not quantified numerically in accessible sources; described as common/widespread within its lowland New Guinea range
- Habitat
- Lowland swamp forest, forest edge, riverine and sago-palm forest
- Fun fact
- During his "wire-wipe display," the male flares his breast-shield on an exposed vertical perch and brushes his twelve wire-like flank plumes across the face and foreparts of a watching female.
- Range
- Lowlands of New Guinea (Indonesia and Papua New Guinea) and Salawati Island, Indonesia
- Diet
- Fruit and arthropods, also nectar and small vertebrates such as frogs
- Size
- 0.33 m
