Bronze parotia
| Berlepsch's parotia | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Paradisaeidae |
| Genus: | Parotia |
| Species: | P. berlepschi |
| Binomial name | |
| Parotia berlepschi Kleinschmidt, 1897 | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Parotia carolae berlepschi | |
The bronze parotia (Parotia berlepschi), also known as the Foja parotia, Berlepsch's parotia or Berlepsch's six-wired bird-of-paradise, is a bird-of-paradise. It resembles and is often considered to be a subspecies of the Queen Carola's parotia, but it differs from the latter by having more heavily bronzed plumage and no eye ring.
The specific name commemorates a 19th-century German ornithologist Hans von Berlepsch.[1]
Description
The bronze parotia is medium-sized bird, with black and bronze-tinged upperparts, conspicuous white flank plumes, iridescent coppery-greenish breast plumes, and six flag-tipped head wires. The duller female lacks the head wires, has finely dark-barred whitish underparts, brown upperparts, and rufous wings. The irides of both sexes are whitish.[2]
Rediscovery
Previously known only from four specimens, the home of this little known bird-of-paradise was located in 1985 by the American scientist Jared Diamond at the Foja Mountains of Papua, Indonesia. Diamond encountered only the female of this species. In December 2005, an international team of eleven scientists from the United States, Australia and Indonesia, led by ornithologist and Conservation International vice-president Bruce Beehler traveled to the unexplored areas of Foja Mountains and rediscovered the bronze parotia among other little known and new species. The first photographs of them were taken during the rediscovery .