The King Bird-of-paradise is a small songbird in the Bird-of-paradise family. Males are striking with a bright red body plumage, a white chest lined in black, and bright blue feet. And then there's those long green-tipped tail plumes.
Like most other Birds-of-paradise, this species is found in Papau New Guinea and other nearby islands. Male birds-of-paradise all have outstanding plumage; many perform dances or other mating rituals where they display their special feathers to prospective females. The male King Bird-of-paradise swings his tail, extends its neck feathers, and puffs out his white chest feathers -- all in order to woo mates.
The population trend for this beautiful species is considered to be stable and the King Bird-of-paradise has a conservation status of Least Concern as of July 2013.
The King Bird-of-paradise is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and was last assessed in 2012 by BirdLife International. This species has a very large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population trend appears to be stable, and hence the species does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size has not been quantified, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
We're adding one new bird each day until we reach our 500th Birdorable species on the last day of July. Today's Bonanza bird is the King Bird-of-paradise. The King Bird-of-paradise is the smallest of the bird-of-paradise family. It lives in Papau New Guinea... Read more »
