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A lesser bird of paradise flaunts his flank plumes to entice females.
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Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University
Nineteenth-century explorer Alfred Russel Wallace was among the first to study birds of paradise in the wild.
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Laman focuses on a king bird of paradise from his perch high in a New Guinea tree—one of more than 140 he climbed during his eight-year quest.
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To photograph the greater bird of paradise on Wokam Island, Laman used leaves sewn together with rattan palm vine to disguise a treetop camera.
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Laman monitored his “leaf cam” from a blind in an adjacent tree with a laptop computer, triggering the shutter by remote control.
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Cornell ornithologist Edwin Scholes crosses the Koko-o River in the Crater Mountain region of Papua New Guinea. Scholes earned his Ph.D. studying parotias, five distinctive species of birds of paradise found in some of New Guinea’s most remote mountain ranges.
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The rising sun spotlights the courtship display of a greater bird of paradise on Wokam Island, south of New Guinea. Males strip leaves from treetop branches to clear the stage for mating rituals.
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A Western parotia struts his stuff. Known for their six head wires and ballerina-like “tutu” of stiff feathers, male parotias flash their iridescent breast feathers as they display for females. Each male clears a patch of forest floor several feet across, creating a stage where he performs a bizarre dance: hopping, prancing sideways, curtsying, and bobbing his head.
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A male magnificent riflebird employs what Scholes calls “shape-shifting” to impress a potential mate.
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Rapid head-wagging transforms the bird’s iridescent breast shield into a glittering advertisement of sexual fitness.
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Constantly trailed by his own flying saucers, a king bird of paradise clings to a vine in the New Guinea rain forest. His vivid colors and bizarre tail feathers evolved from millennia of competition for female favor.
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Special muscles let the King of Saxony bird of paradise swing each antenna-like head feather through a 180-degree arc during courtship. Rows of miniature pennants decorate plumes that can grow to 20 inches.
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Laman and Scholes found the jewel-like Wilson’s bird of paradise on Indonesia’s Waigeo Island.
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In an intimate act that scientists call “wire-wipe display,” during courtship the male twelve-wired bird of paradise repeatedly brushes the female’s face with the dozen stiff feather shafts protruding from his lower torso. The female obviously finds the sensation appealing: She often approaches the male from behind to place her head among his “wires.”
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A twelve-wired bird of paradise calls in a New Guinea swamp. Males brush the dozen stiff feather shafts on their lower torsos against females’ faces before mating. Scientists aren’t sure why—perhaps it tickles.
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