New footage of a male riflebird’s extreme wrist flashes and feather noises shows how this display can be dazzling.
male out of four ptiloris The species, a group of birds of paradise native to Australia and New Guinea, has long fascinated biologists and female birds with its courtship displays. Males repeatedly fan out their dark glossy wing feathers in curved arcs. He shakes his head rhythmically and opens his mouth to make short, sharp snapping sounds.
How males produce such large percussion instruments is a mystery to science, says Thomas MacGillavry, a zoologist at the Vienna University of Veterinary Medicine. Researchers initially thought the birds were somehow clapping their wings together. This creates a sound effect in some different bird species. instead of a rifle bird Use your beak to play with the feathers Like the instrument, MacGillavry and colleagues conclude in the September issue. Linnaeus Society Journal of Biology.
The team has produced a new film about a male Victoria riflebird.Ptiloris victoria) are active and examine specimens of different species. The male periodically closes his beak and briefly hides his lovely yellow throat while shaking his head. The beak strikes the fan-shaped feathers as it swings over them, as if dragging a stick across a picket fence.
The arc of the feathers struck by the beak is a marvel in itself. It curves noticeably inward, almost like a cloak bending forward. To create such curves you need a very flexible wrist.
“In riflebirds, the males appear to do something similar to a bodybuilder flexing,” says MacGillavry. However, the part that corresponds to the bird’s elbow is nestled beneath other tissues, and it is the wrist that actually bends too much.
The wrist of a dead Victoria riflebird specimen could flex 237.1 degrees. different ptiloris The wing specimen was bent a few more degrees. “It’s something other birds can’t do,” MacGillavry said. At least as far as we know.
