Flame Bowerbird
Encyclopedia
The Flame Bowerbird, Sericulus aureus, is one of the most brilliantly coloured bowerbird
s. The male is a medium-sized bird, up to 25 cm long, with flame orange and golden yellow plumage, elongated neck plumes and yellow-tipped black tail. It builds an "avenue-type" bower with two side walls of sticks. The female is an olive brown bird with yellow or golden below.
The Flame Bowerbird is distributed and endemic
to rainforests of New Guinea
. This species is the first bowerbird described by naturalists. Because of the male's beautifully coloured plumage, it was previously thought to be a bird of paradise. Indeed, the male Flame Bowerbird also has a courtship display along with his bower. He twists his tails and his wings to the side, and then shakes his head quickly.
The Flame Bowerbird is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List
of Threatened Species.
Bowerbird
Bowerbirds make up the bird family Ptilonorhynchidae. The family has 20 species in eight genera. These are medium-sized passerines, ranging from the Golden Bowerbird to the Great Bowerbird...
s. The male is a medium-sized bird, up to 25 cm long, with flame orange and golden yellow plumage, elongated neck plumes and yellow-tipped black tail. It builds an "avenue-type" bower with two side walls of sticks. The female is an olive brown bird with yellow or golden below.
The Flame Bowerbird is distributed and endemic
Endemism in birds
An endemic bird area is a region of the world that contains two or more restricted-range species, while a "secondary area" contains one or more restricted-range species. Both terms were devised by Birdlife International....
to rainforests of New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
. This species is the first bowerbird described by naturalists. Because of the male's beautifully coloured plumage, it was previously thought to be a bird of paradise. Indeed, the male Flame Bowerbird also has a courtship display along with his bower. He twists his tails and his wings to the side, and then shakes his head quickly.
Subspecies
There are two distinct subspecies, sometimes considered full species:- Sericulus aureus ardens (Flame Bowerbird), from south-western New Guinea, with orange-faced male
- Sericulus aureus aureus (Masked Bowerbird), the nominate form of north-western New Guinea, with black-faced and black-throated male
The Flame Bowerbird is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List
IUCN Red List
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , founded in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species...
of Threatened Species.