Vogelkop Lophorina

Lophorina niedda

The crescent-caped lophorina or Vogelkop superb bird-of-paradise, sometimes noted as the curl-caped bird-of-paradise, is a species of the Paradisaeidae family. It is endemic to the Bird's Head Peninsula in New Guinea.
Vogelkop Lophorina, Minggre, Arfak Mountains, Papua A new day, a new meeting with an iconic species of bird. Many people may be familiar with the legendary and hilarious male dance of the Superb Bird-of-Paradise as featured in BBC documentaries. That bird is now considered to be the Greater Lophorina (Lophorina superba) whilst the species found here in Vogelkop is called the Vogelkop Lophorina (Lophorina niedda). Unfortunately, no female was around so the male dance was not triggered, but we're still happy to have seen it at all. For the full dance ritual, do check out the videos below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jMTuuhTeqU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWjx6oSgC4M I'll end with another astonishing fact. This bird features "super black" feathers. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5760687/ The theory being that the ultra low reflection of the black feathers maximizes the contrast with the bright feathers. This basically means that this bird invented an OLED TV. Arfak Mountains,Australia (continent),Crescent-caped lophorina,Geotagged,Indonesia,Lophorina niedda,Minggre,New Guinea,Papua,Papua 2023,Spring,Vogelkop,West Papua,Western New Guinea

Naming

The crescent-caped lophorina's scientific name consists of the words "lophorina", meaning "tuft/crest-nose", referring to the upward-standing tufts of feathers behind each nostril, and "niedda" which refers to the native onomatopoeic name for a bird-of-paradise. The subspecies, "L. n. inopinata"'s specific name means unexpected or unlooked for.

First described in 1930 by Ernst Mayr, it had been treated as a subspecies of the superb bird-of-paradise but was elevated to the status of a full species in 2017, and reinforced in 2018 based on its striking black plumage and behavioral differences, especially visible in the courting male.

Distribution

The crescent-caped lophorina is found in the mountains of Bird's Head Peninsula, in Western New Guinea, Indonesia. It is typically found at heights of 1,200–2,000 m.

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Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionChordata
ClassAves
OrderPasseriformes
FamilyParadisaeidae
GenusLophorina
SpeciesL. niedda
Photographed in
Indonesia