King bird of paradise

Description

The real paradisea ( Cicinnurus regius ( Linnaeus,1758 )) is a passerine bird of the Paradisaeidae family : it is the only species within the genus Cicinnurus Vieillot,1816.Measure 16-19 cm in length (males with long tail feathers reach 31 cm),for 38-65 g of weight.The appearance of these birds,especially as regards the males,can remember that of the rock or quetzal cockerel,for the shape of the head feathers,the coloring and the long tail.As in many species of birds of paradise,even the real paradisea has a marked sexual dicromatism : the females,in fact,are brown on the forehead,vertex,nape,back,wings and tail,while face,throat,chest,belly and tail they are gray-white in color,with single brown-edged feathers giving zig-zagged stripes an effect.The males,on the other hand,have plumage of a showy carmine reduniform on the head,throat,back and wings,with yellow-orange nuances on the head (especially at the base of the beak) and darker on the throat: on the chest there is a large transversal band of iridescent green color,which separates the red of the throat from the belly,which is milky white.The tail is black,with the two elongated and filiform central feathers,with thickened and spirally wound edges of iridescent green color also: on the sides of the chest the feathers are white with iridescent green points,while above the eye there is a small black band to form an eyebrow.In both sexes,the legs are bluish,the beak is yellow and the eyes are blue.