A new video of the extreme wrist flares and wing beats of a male riflebird reveals how these showy birds perform their dazzle.
Male out of 4 pylori This species, a group of birds of paradise native to Australia and New Guinea, has long fascinated biologists as well as hens with their courtship displays. The male repeatedly fans out his black satin wing feathers in a curved arc. He shakes his head rhythmically and opens his mouth to a soundtrack of short, sharp thumps.
How the male produced such a loud percussive sound is a scientific mystery, said Thomas McGilllovely, a zoologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. Researchers initially thought the birds were beating their wings in some way. This also produces sound effects for other bird species. rifle bird instead flick feathers using beak Like a tool, McGilllovely and his colleagues Journal of Biology of the Linnean Society.
The research team managed to obtain new film of a male riflebird (pyloris victoriae) and examine specimens of other species. When the male shakes his head, he periodically closes his beak, temporarily hiding his beautiful yellow throat mucous membranes. The beak swings across the feathers like a stick being dragged against a picket fence, hitting the fanned out feathers.
That arc of feathers that the beak strikes is a wonder in itself. It curves sharply inward, like a cape curled forward. Creating curves like this requires very flexible wrists.
“In riflebirds, the males appear to be doing something similar to what a bodybuilder would do when they flex,” McGilllovely says. However, the bird’s equivalent of the elbow is tucked under other tissues, and it is the wrist that actually bends a lot.
The wrist of a dead Victoria rifle bird specimen could flex 237.1 degrees. other pylori The wing specimen was bent several more degrees. That’s “something no other bird can do,” McGilllovely said. At least, as far as we know.
