One of New Guinea’s dancing birds-of-paradise — the Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise (Lophorina niedda) — was finally confirmed to be an entirely new species, thanks to its distinctive dance.
The lesser superb bird-of-paradise (Lophorina minor). Image credit: William Matthew Hart.
The Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise is found only in New Guinea’s far-western Bird’s Head, or Vogelkop, region.
In a paper published in the journal PeerJ, ornithologist Dr. Edwin Scholes of Cornell University and field biologist and photographer Dr. Tim Laman of Harvard University ‘show and tell’ half-a-dozen ways this bird is distinct from the more widespread Superb Bird-of-Paradise (Lophorina superba), now called the Greater Superb Bird-of-Paradise — the bird known for its bouncy ‘smiley face’ dance routine.
“After you see what the Vogelkop form looks like and acts like in the wild, there’s little room for doubt that it is a separate species,” said Dr. Scholes, the leader of the Birds-of-Paradise Project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
“The courtship dance is different. The vocalizations are different. The females look different. Even the shape of the displaying male is different.”
When expanded for courtship display, the Vogelkop male’s raised cape creates a completely different appearance — crescent-shaped with pointed tips rather than the oval shape of the widespread form of the species.
The way the Vogelkop male dances for the female is also is distinctive, the steps being smooth instead of bouncy.
“With full species status, the Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise becomes the fourth endemic bird-of-paradise to the Bird’s Head region of Indonesian New Guinea, a fact that underscores the importance of this region as a center of endemic biodiversity worthy of enhanced conservation protection,” the researchers said.
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E. Scholes & T.G. Laman. 2018. Distinctive courtship phenotype of the Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise Lophorina niedda Mayr, 1930 confirms new species status. PeerJ 6: e4621; doi: 10.7717/peerj.4621
