Twelve-wired bird-of-paradise
| Twelve-wired Bird-of-paradise | |
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| Genus: | Seleucidis Lesson, 1834
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| Species: | S. melanoleucus
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| Seleucidis melanoleucus (Daudin, 1800)
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The Twelve-wired Bird-of-paradise, Seleucidis melanoleucus or Seleucidis melanoleuca, is a medium-sized, approximately 33 cm long, velvet black and yellow bird-of-paradise. The male has a red iris, long black bill and rich yellow plumes along its flanks. From the rear of these plumes emerge twelve blackish, wire-like filaments, which bend back near their bases to sweep forward over the birds hindquarters. The female is a brown bird with black-barred buffy underparts. Its feet are strong, large-clawed and pink in color.
The sole representative of the monotypic genus Seleucidis, the Twelve-wired Bird-of-paradise is a bird of lowland forests. The male displays on an exposed vertical perch with its breast-shield flared. Its diet consists mainly of fruits and arthropods.
Widely distributed throughout New Guinea and Salawati Island of Irian Jaya, the Twelve-wired Bird-of-paradise is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES. However, it has not been easy to breed this bird in captivity. It has only been successfully bred in Singapore's Jurong Bird Park.
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