Manucodes are

birds-of-paradise The birds-of-paradise are members of the family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes. The majority of species are found in eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia. The family has 44 species in 17 genera. The members of this ...

in the genus ''Manucodia'', that are medium-sized with black-glossed purple and green plumages. The members of this genus are distributed in the lowland forests of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

and nearby islands. They are

monogamous Monogamy ( ) is a form of Dyad (sociology), dyadic Intimate relationship, relationship in which an individual has only one Significant other, partner during their lifetime. Alternately, only one partner at any one time (Monogamy#Serial monogamy, ...

and sexually monomorphic, in contrast to most birds-of-paradise. The genus was introduced by the Dutch naturalist

Pieter Boddaert Pieter Boddaert (1730 – 6 May 1795) was a Dutch physician and natural history, naturalist. Early life, family and education Boddaert was the son of a Middelburg jurist and poet by the same name (1694–1760). The younger Pieter obtained his M.D ...

in 1783 for a single species, the

crinkle-collared manucode The crinkle-collared manucode (''Manucodia chalybatus'') is a species of bird-of-paradise. The crinkle-collared manucode is found throughout lowlands and hill forests in mainland New Guinea and Misool Island of West Papua. The diet consists mai ...

(''Manucodia chalybatus''). This is now the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

. The genus name is a contracted form of ''Manucodiata'' that had been used in 1760 by the French zoologist

Mathurin Jacques Brisson Mathurin Jacques Brisson (; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosopher. Brisson was born at Fontenay-le-Comte. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history; his published works ...

for a group of

. The word is derived from the

Old Javanese Old Javanese or Kawi is the oldest attested phase of the Javanese language. It was spoken in the eastern part of what is now Central Java and the whole of East Java, Indonesia. As a literary language, Kawi was used across Java and on the island ...

''Manuk'' meaning "birds" and ''dewata'' meaning "of the gods". The genus contains five species.

References

Bird genera {{Paradisaeidae-stub