Raggiana bird-of-paradise
| Raggiana bird-of-paradise | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Paradisaeidae |
| Genus: | Paradisaea |
| Species: | P. raggiana |
| Binomial name | |
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Paradisaea raggiana P.L. Sclater, 1873 |
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| Synonyms | |
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Gerrus paradisaea |
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Gerrus paradisaea
The Raggiana bird-of-paradise, (Paradisaea raggiana) also known as Count Raggi's bird-of-paradise, is a large bird in the bird-of-paradise family Paradisaeidae.
It is distributed widely in southern and northeastern New Guinea, where its name is kumul. It is also known as cenderawasih. As requested by Count Luigi Maria D'Albertis, the epithet raggiana commemorates the Marquis Francis Raggi of Genoa.
The Raggiana bird-of-paradise is the national bird of Papua New Guinea. In 1971 this species, as Gerrus paradisaea, was made the national emblem and was included on the national flag. 'The Kumuls' ("birds-of-paradise" in Tok Pisin) is also the nickname of the country's national rugby league team.
Its 34 cm long, maroon-brown with a greyish-blue bill, yellow iris and greyish-brown feet. The males has a yellow crown, dark emerald-green throat and yellow collar between the throat and its blackish upper breast feathers. It is adorned with a pair of long black tail wires and large flank plumes. The female is a comparatively drab maroonish-brown bird with no long tail feathers. The ornamental flank plumes vary from red to orange in color, depending on subspecies. The nominate subspecies, P. r. raggiana, has the deepest red plumes, while the subspecies P. r. augustavictoriae of northeast New Guinea, also known as the Empress of Germany's bird of paradise, has apricot-orange plumes.
Its diet consists mainly of fruits and arthropods. The species is an important seed disperser of some fruiting trees in New Guinea, and is for some species of mahogany and nutmeg the main fruit disperser.
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