Twelve-wired bird-of-paradise

Twelve-wired bird-of-paradise
Male
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Paradisaeidae
Genus:	Seleucidis Lesson, RP, 1834
Species:	S. melanoleucus
Binomial name
Seleucidis melanoleucus (Daudin, 1800)
Subspecies[2]
S. m. auripennis S. m. melanoleucus
Synonyms
References:[3][4] Paradisea melanoleuca, Daudin Seleucidis acanthilis, Lesson Paradisea alba, Blum. Paradisea nigricans, Shaw Epimachus albus Falcinellus resplendescens, Less.

The twelve-wired bird-of-paradise (Seleucidis melanoleucus) is a medium-sized, approximately 33 cm (13 in) long, velvet black and yellow bird-of-paradise. The male has a red iris, long black bill and rich yellow plumes along his flanks. From the rear of these plumes emerge twelve blackish, wire-like filaments, which bend back near their bases to sweep forward over the bird's hindquarters. The female is a brown bird with black-barred buff underparts. Their feet are strong, large-clawed and pink.

The sole representative of the monotypic genus Seleucidis, the twelve-wired bird-of-paradise inhabits lowland and swamp forests,^[5] particularly throughout New Guinea and Salawati Island, Indonesia. Their diet consists mainly of fruits and arthropods, extending to frogs, insects, and nectar.^[5]

The display dance of the twelve-wired bird of paradise is called a wire-wipe display. The male chooses an exposed vertical perch, flares his breast-shield, and displays his flank plumes and bare pigmented thighs. The male uses his twelve flank-plume "wires" to make contact with the female, brushing across her face and foreparts.^[6]

The twelve-wired bird-of-paradise is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species,^[1] and is listed on Appendix II of CITES. It has not been easy to breed them in captivity; the first successful captive breeding program was at Singapore's Jurong Bird Park, in 2001.^[7]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Seleucidis melanoleucus.

• BirdLife Species Factsheet
• Video showing Bird-of-Paradise courting a female Tim Laman. Jayapura Western New Guinea. June 2010.