The brown-headed paradise kingfisher (''Tanysiptera danae''), also known as the russet paradise kingfisher, is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the family Alcedinidae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to the lowland forest in the

Bird's Tail Peninsula The Papuan Peninsula, also known as the Bird's Tail Peninsula, is a large peninsula in Papua New Guinea, southeast of the city of Lae, that makes up the southeastern portion of the island of New Guinea. The peninsula is the easternmost extent of ...

(Papua New Guinea). Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are temperate

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. Like all paradise kingfishers this bird has colourful plumage with a red bill and distinctive long tail streamers. No subspecies are distinguished.

Taxonomy

The first formal description of the brown-headed paradise kingfisher was by the English ornithologist

Richard Bowdler Sharpe Richard Bowdler Sharpe (22 November 1847 – 25 December 1909) was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several mo ...

in 1880 from specimens collected near Milne Bay in southeastern

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

. He coined the current binomial name ''Tanysiptera danae''. The

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

''Tanysiptera'' had been introduced by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors in 1825. The name ''Tanysiptera'' is from classical Greek ''tanusipteros'' meaning "long-feathered". The specific epithet ''danae'' is from

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...

;

Danaë In Greek mythology, Danaë (, ; ; , ) was an Argive princess and mother of the hero Perseus by Zeus. She was credited with founding the city of Ardea in Latium during the Bronze Age. Family Danae was the daughter and only child of King Acri ...

was the daughter of

Acrisius In Greek mythology, Acrisius (; Ancient Greek: Ἀκρίσιος means 'ill-judgment') was a king of Argos. He was the grandfather of the famous Greek demi-god Perseus. Family Acrisius was the son of Abas and Aglaea (or Ocalea, depending on ...

, King of

Argos Argos most often refers to: * Argos, Peloponnese, a city in Argolis, Greece ** Ancient Argos, the ancient city * Argos (retailer), a catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland Argos or ARGOS may also refer to: Businesses ...

. The species is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

Habitat and distribution

The brown-headed paradise kingfisher is distributed in deep forest areas in the far east of New Guinea. It mainly inhabits the forests of foothills and occurs mainly in dense primary forests. Its altitude ranges from 300 to 1000 vertical metres. The common paradise kingfisher also occurs in its distribution area. Usually the brown-headed paradise kingfisher is represented at higher altitudes than the common paradise kingfisher. However, in the region around

Popondetta Popondetta (sometimes spelled Popondota) is the capital of Oro (Northern) Province in Papua New Guinea. Popondetta is a city. In 1951 the city became the focus of relief efforts after nearby Mount Lamington erupted and killed 4,000 people. ...

, the capital of the province Oro of Papua New Guinea in the southeast of the island, both species occur at altitudes of 150 meters. The brown-headed paradise kingfisher is to be observed here even more frequently than the common paradise kingfisher.Beehler &. Pratt: ''Birds of New Guinea''. S. 225.

Description

The brown-headed kingfisher is in length excluding the streamers which are up to . They weigh between 37 and 50 grams. The sexes are alike. The head, mantle and

scapulars The scapula (plural scapulae or scapulas), also known as the shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus (upper arm bone) with the clavicle (collar bone). Like their connected bones, the scapulae are paired, with each scapula on either ...

are a warm rufous-brown. The rump, breast and belly are pink-red. The flight feathers are black and the greater coverts are bright blue. The tail is dark purplish blue, the bill is red and the legs and feet are pink or orange.

Diet

Its food mainly consists out of insects it catches on the ground. The type specimen was collected by Charles Huntein in the area around Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea.

Naming and etymology

published the brown-headed kingfisher under the present name ''Tanysiptera danae''. The type specimen was collected by Charles Huntein in the area around the Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea.Richard Bowdler Sharpe, S. 231. In 1825 Nicholas Aylward Vigors introduced the genus ''Tanysiptera'' for the

Paradise jacamar The paradise jacamar (''Galbula dea'') is a species of bird in the family Galbulidae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.Tobias, J., T. Züchner, T.A. de Melo Júnior, G. M. Kirwan, and ...

(''Galbula dea'' (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

, 1758)).Nicholas Aylward Vigors, S. 433. This name is composed of the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

words "tany-, teinō τανυ, τεινω" which stands for "long, stretched" and "pteron πτερον" for "feather".James A. Jobling, S. 379. The

byname An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

name "danae" probably refers to "

", the daughter of

. Since there were also other Danaës in Greek mythology and Sharpe did not provide an exact explanation of the name, it cannot be excluded that he had Danaë, the daughter of

Neoptolemus In Greek mythology, Neoptolemus (; ), also called Pyrrhus (; ), was the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamia, and the brother of Oneiros. He became the mythical progenitor of the ruling dynasty of the Molossians of ancient Ep ...

, or Danaë, the daughter of Leontion, in mind.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q901626 brown-headed paradise kingfisher Birds of the Papuan Peninsula brown-headed paradise kingfisher Taxonomy articles created by Polbot