Lawes's Parotia
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| Parotia lawesii E.P. Ramsay, 1885 |
The Lawes's Parotia, Parotia lawesii is a medium-sized, up to 27cm long, passerine bird of the Paradisaeidae family. The male is a velvet black bird with an erectile silvery white forehead crest, iridescent purple blue nape, lime yellow mouth and golden green breast plumes. Adorned with three ornamental spatule head wires from behind of each eye and elongated black flank feathers, that spread skirt-like in courtship display. The female is a brown bird with dark head, yellow iris and dark-barred yellowish brown below. This species can alter its blue and yellow iris appearance.
The Lawes's Parotia is distributed and endemic to mountain forests of southeast and eastern Papua New Guinea. Like most birds of paradise, the male is polygamous. The diet consists mainly of fruits, seeds and arthropods.
The bird's home was discovered by Carl Hunstein on mountain near Port Moresby in 1884. The name commemorates the New Guinea pioneer missionary Reverend William George Lawes.
Widespread and common throughout its range, the Lawes's Parotia is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Parotia lawesii. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 29 October 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
