Courtship and Mating of the King of Saxony Bird of Paradise Pteridophora alberti in New Guinea with Comment on their Taxonomic Significance

Abstract

The male King of Saxony Bird of Paradise Pteridophora albertiperforms several phases of courtship. He sings from a traditional prominent forest canopy perch to attract females. At the arrival of a female, a vocalising male performs simple displays involving movement of occipital plumes and may erect mantle cape and breast shield feathers. A descending invitation flight to a springy vine in the forest understorey follows. A more complex courtship sequence is performed here. This involves the male vigorously bouncing to vibrate the vine which in turn bounces the female, perched c. 50 cm above him. Should the female’s interest decline the male performs infantile wing-shivering to re-stimulate it. The perch-bouncing display is followed by the male hopping stiffly up to the female with raised mantle cape and breast shield, rotating his upper body, and waggling his head side-to-side causing his raised occipital plumes to swirl about prior to mounting her to mate. Courtship elements similar to those of other birds of paradise are as follows: grossly elongated occipital plumes raised and brought forward toward the female, erected dense feathering above eyes and lores forming conspicuous ‘brows’, mantle cape and breast shield simultaneously erected and the upper body stiffly rotated and the head waggled side-to-side. All of these elements of courtship are otherwise known only in parotiasParotia spp; these findings are consistent with the view that Pteridophora is most closely related to Parotia.