Today I’ve got a bird which is all about that tail.
The Indian Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi). And you know with a name like that, it’s going to be fancy. And my word, is it fancy.
It’s a smallish bird, of only about 20cm. But what it lacks in size it makes up for in tail length. Its tail can grow up to 30cm long, so it’s really more tail than bird.
It also comes in two flavours, the rufous (as seen above) and the white:
Just like with Peafowl though, only the males mess around with all that tail action. The females are much more sensible, albeit less eye catching.
They’re a bird where the name says it all. They live in India and catch flies. And, they are also coincidentally somewhat related to the actual Birds of Paradise from Papua New Guinea.
While they’re in different taxon families, (the PNG Paradise birds belong to the Family Paradisaeidae, while our Paradise bird belongs to a Family know as the Monarchs) they are both in the same Superfamily, Corvoidea — the Superfamily is so named because it’s also the one Crows belong to.
That sure is one diverse family reunion those birds get to have.
What does all this mean? Nothing really … I just need some filler for the end of the email.
Birds!
05/05/2019
Bird of the Week 