With Its Vivid Colors, King Bird-Of-Paradise Is A Living Gem

The king bird-of-paradise (Cicinnurus regius) is a small and colorful bird of the Paradisaeidae (Bird-of-paradise) family. Its bright and vivid colors make it a living gem.

The males of the species are easy to recognize due to their sharp red color and two long tail feather shafts that end with a bright green circular swirl of feathers. The abdomen is white, with a green stripe across the chest.

The black spots above the eyes make the bird look even more dazzling. Females are far less bright, with their backs, heads, and throats being olive-brown and their chest a variegated buff.

The king bird-of-paradise is endemic to and relatively common throughout Papua New Guinea and many of the country’s western islands. It likes to live in lowland rainforests, gallery forests, along forest edges, as well as disturbed and tall secondary forests. Its diet mainly consists of fruits and arthropods.

King birds-of-paradise are polygynous, which means that they will go to another female after mating with the first one. The male starts the courtship ritual by perching upright on a branch, vibrating his wings then holding his body parallel to the branch.

Then he will spread his pectoral feathers and raise his tail over his head while dancing. He then swings his tail and then his body side to side and finally hangs upside down on the branch with his wings folded, swinging like a pendulum.