The legendary "footless" bird is actually very "ghostly"

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There is a kind of bird in the world that has no feet. It can only fly like this. When it is tired of flying, it sleeps in the wind. This kind of bird can only land once in its life, and that time is when it dies.

"

This is full of

Mysterious, romantic, sad colors

The "footless" bird

Bird of Paradise

In 1522, Magellan's fleet returned to Spain, completing the first feat of circumnavigating the world.

Among the many rare cargoes and spoils on the ship, a group of bird specimens were the most eye-catching: these birds had no feet or wings, and had long and slender feathers on the sides of their bodies and tails. The feathers were full of golden and green metallic luster, which was very strange.

Early painting of the Greater Bird of Paradise without its feet and wings

Image credit: Ulysses Aldrovan

People imagined that this kind of bird could only float in the air throughout its life, dancing with its feathers, and feeding on dew, just like an angel from paradise.

Of course, from a scientific point of view, there is no bird without wings and feet in the world. The "Bird of Paradise" seen by Europeans was just a fur specimen used by local indigenous people for decoration.

But because of this misunderstanding, the romantic and mysterious name "Bird-of-Paradise" has been retained.

In 1758, Linnaeus, the father of modern biological taxonomy, named the first discovered bird of paradise the Greater Bird of Paradise.

Bird of Paradise family photo source: Utah Museum of Natural History

Modern bird classification results show that birds of paradise are typical tropical rainforest birds, belonging to the family Ornithidae, which includes 15 genera, 42 different species and some hybrid species.

The bright colors and gorgeous appearance are to better facilitate courtship and reproduction in the complex rainforest environment.

Male Greater Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea apoda)

Photo credit: Tim Larman

Generally speaking, birds of paradise have brighter colors and longer specialized head or tail feathers. These slender feathers are actually specialized feather shafts that have lost their barbs and are not capable of flying.

These exaggerated and gorgeous feathers are actually props for males to show their strength and excellent genes, which helps female birds of paradise choose excellent mates to maintain the survival and reproduction of the entire species.

During the breeding season, male great birds of paradise gather in a place called the "courtship ground" to show off their gorgeous costumes and dancing moves, and compete with each other. The winner can get the favor of the female bird of paradise.

Everyday version of the gorgeous bird of paradise male

Image source: astronomy-to-zoology.tumblr.com

Of all the birds of paradise

The most magical dance of the bird of paradise

Attention!!! This is not a computer effect!

Don’t you understand?

Here is the decomposition action

↓↓↓

Image source: Museum

When a male magnificent bird of paradise courts a female, he will first sing a clear and melodious song in the jungle.

When the female bird flies over, it will spread its wings and dance, hiding its head under its wings, spreading out into a semi-elliptical black "curtain".

At this time, the blue feathers on its head will shrink into two blue dots on the curtain, like a pair of bright blue eyes, and the blue pectoral shield on its chest will open into a blue "mouth", and the whole looks like a smiling face.

Image source: google

However, the seemingly ordinary female bird is very picky, so the male bird is very persistent and dances in front of her. It seems that only those who persist can win her heart.

Don’t say that the magnificent bird of paradise looks silly, it has the blackest feathers in nature.

Researchers have examined the ultra-black feathers of five bird-of-paradise species and found that compared with other black-feathered birds, their reflectivity of light is surprisingly low : only 0.05%-0.31% of incident light is reflected back.

This extremely low light reflectivity gives the bird of paradise its dull, bottomless black appearance.

Beautiful Bird of Paradise Photo Source: National Geographic Chinese Website

Why is it so dark?

By analyzing museum specimens, researchers found that the feathers of birds of paradise are different from ordinary black feathers. They have unique microscopic structures that can absorb light.

In a normal feather, the barbules are on the same plane as the barb (left), but in ultra-black feathers these barbule structures stand up and have more subtle bumps on them (right).

These erected structures

Can "trap" light

Let the light scatter continuously

And gradually absorbed by material consumption

The male bird of paradise's brilliantly colored feathers and bizarre dancing postures are the result of sexual selection. Against the extremely dark background, the colorful feathers stand out particularly well, making them more attractive to females.

Honey, do you think I'm beautiful?

Image source: Museum

END

Source: Shanghai Natural History Museum, National Geographic Chinese website

Museum, National Geographic China

Compiled by: Dong Xiaoxian

Editor: Guru