''Astrapia'' (Vieillot, 1816) is a genus of birds-of-paradise. The genus contains five species, all endemic to New Guinea. The males have highly

iridescent Iridescence (also known as goniochromism) is the phenomenon of certain surfaces that appear to gradually change color as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. Examples of iridescence include soap bubbles, feathers, butterfl ...

plumage and remarkably long tails. Females are duller and have shorter tails.

Barnes's astrapia Barnes's astrapia, also known as Barnes's long-tailed bird-of-paradise or Barnes's long-tail, is a bird in the family Paradisaeidae and the genus ''Astrapia'' that is a likely hybrid between Stephanie's astrapia (''A. stephaniae'') and the ribbo ...

is a hybrid produced by the interbreeding of

Princess Stephanie's astrapia Stephanie's astrapia (''Astrapia stephaniae''), also known as Princess Stephanie's astrapia, is a species of bird-of-paradise of the family Paradisaeidae, native to the Bird's Tail Peninsula (Papua New Guinea). This species was first described b ...

and the

ribbon-tailed astrapia The ribbon-tailed astrapia, also known as Shaw Mayer's astrapia (''Astrapia mayeri''), is a species of bird-of-paradise. The ribbon-tailed astrapia is distributed and endemic to subalpine forests in western part of the central highlands of Papua ...

. Brown: Carina.

Taxonomy and systematics

''Astrapia'' is derived from the Greek '''astrapios''' or '''astrapaios, meaning lightning or a flash of lightning, possibly a reference to the iridescence of the plumage. The genus is suggested to be

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

, roughly six million years old, and forms a sister-group with the two species in the genus ''

Paradigalla The genus ''Paradigalla'' consists of two species of birds-of-paradise. Both are medium-sized black birds with blue and yellow facial wattles. The name of the genus is derived from two words, the ''Paradisaea'' and '' Gallus'', the junglefow ...

''. ''Astrapia'' and ''

'' are members of a larger clade that includes the other long-tail birds-of-paradise from the genus ''

Epimachus ''Epimachus'' is a genus of birds-of-paradise (Paradisaeidae) that includes two species, found in the highland forests of New Guinea. They are the largest members of the family. The common name "sicklebill" refers to their long, decurved, sickle ...

''.

Species

Arfak astrapia The Arfak astrapia (''Astrapia nigra'') is a species of astrapia, a group of birds found in the '' Paradiseidae'' family of the birds-of-paradise. In the wild, the bird has hybridised with the black sicklebill creating offspring that were once co ...

, ''Astrapia nigra'' *

Splendid astrapia The Splendid astrapia (''Astrapia splendidissima'') is a species of ''Astrapia'' of the birds-of-paradise family, Paradisaeidae, and one of the least known and most elusive of its family and genus. Taxonomy and Subspecies The Splendid astrapia ...

, ''Astrapia splendidissima'' *

Ribbon-tailed astrapia The ribbon-tailed astrapia, also known as Shaw Mayer's astrapia (''Astrapia mayeri''), is a species of bird-of-paradise. The ribbon-tailed astrapia is distributed and endemic to subalpine forests in western part of the central highlands of Papua ...

, ''Astrapia mayeri'' *

, ''Astrapia stephaniae'' *

Huon astrapia The Huon astrapia (''Astrapia rothschildi''), also known as Rothschild's astrapia, Huon bird-of-paradise, or Lord Rothschild's bird-of-paradise, is a species of bird-of-paradise belonging to the genus ''Astrapia''. Like most of its congeners, ''A ...

, ''Astrapia rothschildi'' Within the genus, ''A. nigra'' and ''A. splendidissima'' are sister species, which together are sister to a clade that includes ''A. rothschildi'', ''A. mayeri'' and ''A. stephaniae'' with ''A. rothschildi'' as the basal member.

Description

The five species of the genus ''Astrapia'' are endemic to New Guinea in the mountains of Volgelkop, the central ranges and the Huon Peninsula. Of these, three are

allopatric Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

—''A. nigra'', ''A. splendidissima'' and ''A. rothschildi''. The other two—''A. mayeri'' and ''A. stephaniae—''overlap with each other at the margins of their respective elevation ranges in a small part of Papua New Guinea's central highlands. All species within ''Astrapia'' exhibit sexual dimorphism. Adult males appear mostly jet-black under most lighting conditions, with highly iridescent greenish-blue heads, an intensely reflective coppery-orange band on the upper breast and either a deep violet (nearly black) or mostly white tail. The three allopatric species also have iridescent green lower abdomen. Adult females are duller blackish-brown, with smaller, white smudged tails running down their lengths.

Behavior

Mating and breeding

Breeding behaviors are not well known, but all species are thought to be polygamous, with promiscuous males that use arboreal display sites, and with females providing all parental care. Summaries from species accounts indicate a few simple behaviors including a form of hoping back and forth between branches and an inverted display posture in A. rothschildi. At traditional sites in the forest canopy, ''

Astrapia stephaniae ''Astrapia'' (Vieillot, 1816) is a genus of birds-of-paradise. The genus contains five species, all endemic to New Guinea. The males have highly iridescent plumage and remarkably long tails. Females are duller and have shorter tails. Barnes's a ...

'' is known to form leks. There are seven distinct male courtship displays that have been documented: perch-hopping, pivoting, inverted tail-fanning, nape-pecking, post-copulatory tumbling, upright sleeked posturing and branch-sidling. Of the male behaviors, perch-hopping is the most broadly distributed among all species but '' A. nigra.'' In all of them, the displaying bird moves quickly between multiple branches by hopping or making short flight-hops. In ''A. rothschildi,'' hopping between perches sometimes includes chasing females (or female plumaged individuals). It is unclear if chasing is a component of perch-hopping in the other species. Ribbon-tailed Astrapia - Papua New Guinea (19981314929)

Ribbon-tailed Astrapia - Papua New Guinea (19981314929)

A type of pivot display is known from two species, '' A. rothschildi'' and '' A. mayeri''. In both, it involves repeatedly moving in a ritualized fashion from side-to-side with feet more-or-less in a fixed position. The most distinctive feature of the '' A. rothschildi'' pivot is wing flicking whereas in '' A. mayeri,'' the most distinctive features are the very ritualized hunchbacked posture and the highly exaggerated swishing movement of the male's long ribbon-like tail. The

and the

have a distinctive and specialized display behavior, which is called the inverted tail-fan display. When the abdominal feathers are sky-oriented during the display, their green iridescent feathers (that would appear otherwise dark) become highly visible; the

splendid astrapia The Splendid astrapia (''Astrapia splendidissima'') is a species of ''Astrapia'' of the birds-of-paradise family, Paradisaeidae, and one of the least known and most elusive of its family and genus. Taxonomy and Subspecies The Splendid astrapia ...

also has highly iridescent green abdominal plumage, which raises the question about if it too has an undocumented inverted display behavior.

References

Bird genera Endemic fauna of New Guinea Taxa named by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot {{Paradisaeidae-stub