The Empress of Germany's bird of paradise, ''Paradisaea raggiana augustavictoriae'', is a large, up to 34 cm long, maroon brown bird in the family

Paradisaeidae 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 ...

, one of three families of birds known as birds of paradise. The male has a dark emerald green throat, yellow crown, pale brown below and narrow yellow throat collar. It closely resembles the crimson-plumed

Raggiana bird-of-paradise 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 (biology), family Paradisaeidae. It is distributed widely in southern and northeastern New Guin ...

, but has apricot orange rather than crimson flank plumes. The female is an overall brown bird with yellow head and dark brown face. The Empress of Germany's bird of paradise is distributed and

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 elsew ...

to the upper

Ramu River The Ramu River is a major river in northern Papua New Guinea. The headwaters of the river are formed in the Kratke Range from where it then travels about northwest to the Bismarck Sea. Along the Ramu's course, it receives numerous tributaries ...

and

Huon Peninsula Huon Peninsula is a large rugged peninsula on the island of New Guinea in Morobe Province, eastern Papua New Guinea. It is named after French explorer Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec. The peninsula is dominated by the steep Saruwaged and Finister ...

of northeastern

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. The male is

polygamous Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is ...

and displays in communal lek. The diet consists mainly of fruits, insects and

arthropods Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

. One of the most heavily hunted birds of paradise in the

plume hunting Plume hunting is the hunting of wild birds to harvest their feathers, especially the more decorative plumes which were sold for use as ornamentation, such as aigrettes in millinery. The movement against the plume trade in the United Kingdom w ...

era, the Empress of Germany's bird of paradise was the first bird of paradise to breed in captivity. It was bred by Prince K. S. Dharmakumarsinhji of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in 1940. The name commemorates the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Empress and queen consort of Prussia,

Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein , house = Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg , father = Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein , mother = Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg , birth_date = , birth_place = Dolzig Palace ...

. In the wild, the Empress of Germany's bird of paradise is hybridized with the

emperor bird-of-paradise The emperor bird-of-paradise (''Paradisaea guilielmi''), also known as emperor of Germany's bird-of-paradise, is a species of bird-of-paradise. The emperor bird-of-paradise is endemic to Papua New Guinea. It is distributed in hill forests of the ...

, with at least six specimens known. Thought to be a new species, the

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

was named Maria's bird-of-paradise, ''Paradisaea maria'' or Frau Reichenow's bird-of-paradise.

References

Paradisaea Birds of Papua New Guinea Birds of the Huon Peninsula {{Paradisaeidae-stub