Birds
Superb Bird-of-paradise
Lophorina · also called superb bird-of-paradise, greater superb bird-of-paradise, Vogelkop superb bird-of-paradise
The male superb bird-of-paradise is an ordinary-looking black bird until a female shows up. Then it folds its own feathers into an oval mask with two glowing blue eyes and a wide blue smile, and dances around her — a display so strange it looks like a cartoon alien.
Overview
Superb birds-of-paradise live in mid-montane rainforest across New Guinea, mostly 1,000–2,300 m, and are tolerant of forest edges and gardens. They eat mostly fruit, plus insects and spiders. Males are velvet black with an iridescent blue crown and breast shield; females are cryptic brown and do all the nesting alone.
The transformation
Displaying, the male snaps up a black nape cape and a blue breast shield and pulls them forward into a symmetrical ellipse around his face. Two bright blue crown patches sit in it like eyes above the shield “smile,” and he bounces side to side around the female, tail feathers snapping, keeping the “face” aimed at her.
Blacker than black
The male’s display feathers are “super black” — branched microstructures trap light so completely that the Vogelkop form reflects as little as 0.05%, among the darkest materials in nature. The black reads as a void, which makes the adjacent blue look impossibly bright to the female.
Two species
Split in 2017 into the widespread greater superb and the Vogelkop superb of the Bird’s Head Peninsula, which has a wider, smile-shaped display and a smoother dance.
Status
The superb bird-of-paradise is Least Concern, common through New Guinea’s montane forest.
Superb Bird-of-paradise: common questions
How does the superb bird-of-paradise's courtship display work?
The male first prepares a "court" — a log, rock, or patch of ground that he clears of leaves and debris — and advertises with a loud call to attract a female. When one arrives and perches above him, he snaps into his display — he erects the long, black, cape-like feathers on his nape and back and swings them forward over his head, and at the same time raises the iridescent blue-green feathers of his breast into a stiff shield. Pulled together, these form a near-perfect black oval, and set into it are two brilliant blue patches from his crown above the shield, so that from the female's viewing angle the whole arrangement looks like a rounded face with two glowing eyes and a wide bright "smile." He then bounces rapidly from side to side around her, snapping his tail feathers to make a mechanical clicking, keeping the "face" pointed at her the whole time.
What is "super black" and why does this bird have it?
Super black is an extreme form of black colouration that reflects almost no light — under 0.5%, and in the Vogelkop superb bird-of-paradise as little as 0.05%, comparable to engineered materials like Vantablack. Ordinary black feathers reflect a few percent of light and still show some sheen and contour. The superb bird-of-paradise's display feathers instead have microscopic barbules that are curved and covered in tiny spikes, forming a dense array that catches light rays and bounces them around until they are absorbed rather than reflected back. The result is that the black areas of the display look like a hole in space with no visible surface or shape. Placed right next to the vivid blue breast shield, this makes the blue appear to glow with unnatural intensity, because the eye has no dark reference to compare it against. It is thought to be a trick evolved purely to enhance the colour signal to females.
Why are there two superb birds-of-paradise now?
For a long time the superb bird-of-paradise was considered a single species spread across the mountains of New Guinea. Detailed study of courtship footage, calls, and specimens, published in 2017, showed that the population on the Bird's Head (Vogelkop) Peninsula in the far west is consistently different — its display forms a wider, smile-shaped ellipse rather than a taller oval, the male shuffles smoothly rather than bouncing, and its call is distinct. On that basis it was recognised as a separate species, the Vogelkop superb bird-of-paradise (Lophorina niedda), with the rest of the range holding the greater superb bird-of-paradise (Lophorina superba). Both remain common.
Do female superb birds-of-paradise look the same as the males?
No, and the difference is dramatic. The male is the velvet-black, blue-shielded showpiece. The female is a completely different-looking bird — warm brown above, buff below with fine dark barring, and well camouflaged against bark and dead leaves. This is typical of birds-of-paradise and reflects their breeding system — males do nothing but display and mate, competing intensely for the attention of females, so extreme male ornament is favoured; females do all the nest-building, incubation, and chick-rearing alone, so for them being inconspicuous to predators is what matters. A female superb bird-of-paradise on the nest is very hard to spot.