Elliot's bird-of-paradise

Elliot's bird of paradise
Illustration by John Gould
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Paradisaeidae
Species:	Epimachus f. fastuosus x Astrapia nigra
Synonyms
Epimachus ellioti Ward, 1873

Elliot's bird of paradise is a bird in the family Paradisaeidae that is presumed to be an intergeneric hybrid between a black sicklebill and Arfak astrapia. This assumption was made by Erwin Stresemann who had also dismissed other new species of birds of paradise as hybrids. A minority of ornithologists dispute this claim; specimens are considerably smaller than the latter two species. Additionally, Stresemann used the A. nigra x E. fastuosus explanation for the astrapian sicklebill as well. It was first described by Edward Ward in 1873.

History

Illustration by J. Wolf and J. Smith

Only two adult male specimens are known of this bird, held in the British Natural History Museum and the Dresden Natural History Museum, and presumably deriving from the Vogelkop Peninsula of north-western New Guinea.

References

• Frith, Clifford B.; Beehler, Bruce M. (1998). The Birds of Paradise. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-854853-9.