Birds-of-paradise have captivated the planet with their elaborate plumage and idiosyncratic mating dances. Some species appear to shape-shift as they elongate plumes of feathers, fan their wings, or even hang upside down from a tree branch like a bat.
There are about 40 species in the birds-of-paradise family, and all are native to either Papua New Guinea, its surrounding islands, or Australia.
“They’re like no other birds on earth,” says Joel Sartore, National Geographic Explorer, photographer, and creator of Photo Ark.
Since 2006, Sartore has been traveling the globe in a bid to document as many species as humanly possible. And as of this writing, he has approached a number that once seemed unthinkable—17,000 species lovingly coaxed into posing for his camera. Usually, Sartore and his team select one species to highlight as the milestone, but with birds-of-paradise, he says, “It was just impossible for us to choose.”
Recently returned from a trip to Port Moresby, Sartore tried to convey what it was like to sit in the presence of so many of these flamboyantly feathered creatures.
“Everything was interesting to me,” says Sartore. “They were really calm, all of them, and usually if a bird’s calm in my tent, they’re pretty smart.”
He recalled one bird-of-paradise in particular—an iridescent turquoise and purple bird known as the trumpet manucode (Phonygammus keraudrenii mayrii)—that stared right back at him with its huge, cherry-red eyeball.
“He’s seeing himself in the reflection of the light lens filter,” explains Sartore.
This is one of the goals of every shoot Sartore does with his simple backgrounds and closeup approach: “We go with the black-and-white backgrounds to eliminate all distractions and look animals in the eye. It also gives all animals an equal voice, because there’s no size comparison,” he says.
“This little king bird-of-paradise,” says Sartore of a bright-red species only slightly larger than a dollar bill, “he’s as big as an elephant.”
Evolution at the extremes
Looking across the assortment of birds featured here, you’ll notice that each species is vastly different from the others, either in color, shape, or feather arrangement. And when these males start to strut for the local females, you’ll see that each species also has its own way of wooing the opposite sex.
So how did all these closely related birds become so strikingly different?
“Evolution by sexual selection has ‘permitted’ the evolution of extravagant feathers and behaviors because the fruit they eat is abundant, and the predators that often counterbalance extravagant evolution are absent,” says Edwin Scholes, an ornithologist, and founder and leader of the Cornell Lab’s Birds-of-Paradise Project.
Interestingly, while it’s the male birds and their fancy feathers we tend to focus upon, it’s the female birds-of-paradise that are doing the choosing—which means they’re the ones actually responsible for the evolution of such extraordinary traits.
Habitat and geography also play a role, of course. “Birds-of-paradise are sedentary forest dwellers and don’t disperse or migrate long distances, so even a lowland river valley is a barrier to a montane species. And none fly over open water to islands,” says Scholes.
Separated from each other and unencumbered by predators, birds-of-paradise have been free to break off into ever more enchanting species. Some have incredibly oversized features, such as the ribbon-tailed astrapia, which has tailfeathers three times as long as its body. Others, such as the superb bird of paradise, can make their feathers click while dancing. And the growling riflebird? It’s known for its, well, growl—something you definitely don’t hear every day from a bird.
One species, the lesser superb bird-of-paradise, has even been shown to sport feathers that absorb around 99.95 percent of all visible light—a quality scientists call ultrablack or superblack.
Add it all up, and Scholes says birds-of-paradise are “some of the most beautiful, bizarre, and diverse [birds] on the planet.”
Bird-of-paradise conservation
The good news for these fantastic birds is that they are doing better than many other species found in the Photo Ark.
“Thankfully, no species are currently in the critically endangered category,” says Scholes, though he admits some need more thorough assessment. While none of the species shown here are considered endangered, around one-fifth of all birds-of-paradise species are listed as either vulnerable or near threatened.
“The species that are most at risk or most vulnerable are those that are found only on relatively small islands just offshore from mainland New Guinea, and some that are found at the higher elevations of isolated mountain ranges,” says Scholes.
Overall, Sartore says he hopes the images in the Photo Ark will remind people that there is so much life on this planet worth saving.
“We’ll go wherever we can to just show people what life was all about and hopefully it makes a difference,” he says. “That’s kind of the whole point—just get people’s attention, get them to think about something other than politics and sports for a little bit.”
“And that as these species go away,” says Sartore, “so could we.”
