Red Bird-of-Paradise

Mon, 12 May 2025 23:19:41 +0000

The red bird-of-paradise (Paradisaea rubra, also Cendrawasih Merah), is a bird-of-paradise in the genus Paradisaea, family Paradisaeidae.
Large, up to 33 cm long, brown and yellow with a dark brown iris, grey legs and yellow bill. The male has an emerald green face, a pair of elongated black corkscrew-shaped tail wires, dark green feather pompoms above each eye and a train of glossy crimson red plumes with whitish tips at either side of the breast. The male measures up to 72 cm long, including the ornamental red plumes that require at least six years to fully attain. The female is similar but smaller in size, with a dark brown face and has no ornamental red plumes. The diet consists mainly of fruits, berries and arthropods.
As with other sexually dimorphic birds of paradise, the male Red Bird of Paradise is polygamous. It also has one of the most complex courtship display of the whole family. On high intensity display, he performs a butterfly dance, spreading and fluttering his wings like a giant butterfly.
An Indonesian endemic, the red bird-of-paradise is distributed to lowland rainforests of Waigeo and Batanta islands of Raja Ampat, West Papua. This species shares its home with another bird-of-paradise, the Wilson's bird-of-paradise. Hybridisation between these two species is not recorded but is expected because it is recorded for many other birds-of-paradise.