Magnificent Riflebird Ptiloris magnificus Scientific name definitions

Male 34 cm, 143–230 g; female 28 cm, 94–185 g. Fairly large paradis­aeid with long, decurved bill and short, rather square-ended graduated tail. Male nominate race has velvety jet-black head decorated from lores to nape with scale-like metallic green-blue feathers washed purple and magenta; sides of face, chin and throat dully iridescent violet-purple and/or (rarely) olive-green; mantle to uppertail-coverts, lesser wing-coverts and tertials velvety jet-black with strong iridescence of violet-purple with magenta wash (and, rarely, blues and/or olive-green sheen visible), greater coverts, alula and exposed flight-feathers iridescent dark blue; uppertail velvety jet-black, iridescent deep blue sheen on basal outer edges of webs, but shorter central feather pair highly iridescent metallic dark blue-green to green-blue with violet-purple and/or magenta sheens; narrow area on central throat broadening to upper breast decorated with extensive delta-shaped breast shield of scale-like intensely iridescent greenish-blue feathers, in some lights washed with violet-purple and/or magenta sheens; lower shield edge bordered by narrow band of velvety jet-black feathers with violet-purple sheen, and below this even narrower band of iridescent bronzed yellow-green; rest of underparts, including elongate filamental flank plumes (extending past tail), matt brownish black, overwashed with dully iridescent maroon to carmine and/or (rarely) olive-green, particularly against breastband; vent and undertail-coverts, also tips of longer flank plumes, matt blackish; iris dark brown; bill black, gape pale yellow, mouth pale lemon-yellow to lime-green; legs dark leaden grey to blackish. Female is smaller than male, with slightly shorter bill (unlike congeners) and, especially, shorter wing (no overlap between sexes); plumage radically different, cryptically brown and rufous above, with broad supercilium and malar stripe dirty white, finely flecked variably buff to brown, chin whitish to greyish white, throat flecked and spotted blackish grey, these marks grading to fine barring on breast and then to broader and paler barring on greyish-white rest of underparts. Juvenile has plumage soft, more downy, dark bars on breast and belly sooty brown and wider apart, crown and upperparts paler and more rufous; immature male like adult female; subadult variable, like adult female with few feathers of adult male plumage intruding to like adult male with few feathers of female-like plumage remaining; with increasing age male acquires progressively shorter tail, central rectrices decreasing in length at greater rate than rest. Races differ only minimally: alberti is like nominate, but base of culmen slightly less feathered, bill more curved, shorter wing, tarsus and tail, male with only faint maroon sheen below, relatively shorter central pair of rectrices, female browner (less rufous-tinged) above and lacks speckling on upper throat.

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See L. paradisea. Has been considered conspecific with L. victoriae. Previously considered conspecific with L. intercedens (which see). Intergeneric hybridization with Seleucidis melanoleucus and Paradisaea minor recorded; also with congener L. superba. Race alberti smaller than nominate and L. intercedens, and vocally moderately distinct from nominate; more research needed to assess its taxonomic status. Two subspecies recognized.

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Lowland forest, hill forest and middle montane forest, also monsoon forest, swamp-forest, and gallery forest and forest edge; occasionally in mangroves and timber plantations. Sea-level mainly to 700 m, occasionally or locally to 1200 m.

Presumed resident.

Fruits (mostly capsules) and animals, latter including wide variety of insects, spiders (Araneae) and myriapods; overall a greater proportion of arthropods eaten, but relative proportions vary seasonally. Forages mostly in main canopy for fruits, but gleans/probes in lower canopy and subcanopy for animals. Forages alone, occasionally with small groups of loosely associated individuals at fruiting trees; joins (female-plumaged birds possibly more so than adult males) mixed-species foraging flocks containing pitohuis (Pitohui) and other paradisaeid species.

Races differ in advertisement vocalizations of male: nominate race (W & C New Guinea) and alberti (NE Australia) a powerful clear upslurred but variable “woiiieet-woit”; notes of nominate in Kumawa Mts, West Papua, are lower, upward-inflected, clear, hollow ones delivered more as hoots. Australian <em>alberti</em> calls geographically variable: at Cape York two identical upward-inflected clear whistled notes, the first sometimes flatter and softer, or the two sometimes repeated as a song series; at Claudie R (Iron Range) first note is lower and briefer and is continuous with second in being fluidly connected by downward inflection prior to sharp end (sounding like a person whistling to attract another); at Rocky R (Silver Plains) call like that at Cape York and nominate race of New Guinea. Louder calls carry up to c. 1 km.

Season variable across range, at least Jun–Feb, females with enlarged oocytes Feb, Jun, Jul and Oct–Nov and some males with moderately to greatly enlarged gonads during all months (but smallest Feb–Mar); egg-laying early Sept to mid Feb, and nestlings (one nest) Nov and presumed female attending dependent young late Sept in NE Australia; display late wet season to throughout dry season. Polygynous, solitary promiscuous male advertisement-singing/displaying from several traditional perches; female builds and attends nest alone. Males regularly dispersed through forest (c. 500 m apart at Ok Tedi, in C New Guinea), but territoriality unconfirmed. Male displays with initially static sleeked postures, then raising fully opened wings high to each side, with head and neck swung between them, followed by vigorously animated hopping along horizontal display bough (unlike L. victoriae, not atop a vertical stump) while in this pose; courtship mostly in lower understorey to subcanopy. Nest composed of large dead leaves and vine tendrils loosely put together, sometimes fronds of epiphytic ferns included, lined with fine leaf midribs and fibres; recorded sites used in Australia include base of living fronds of pandanus (Pandanus) tree crown, atop basket-fern epiphytes on tree-trunk, and atop broken-off trunk with new regrowth, variously 0·5–16 m above ground. Clutch 1–2 eggs, mostly two; no information on incubation and nestling periods.

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). CITES II. Mostly common where found; uncommon at 300–1200 m in S Cyclops Mts in Jul, with calling males sparse. In Ok Tedi area males called c. 500 m apart; and near Kiunga (C New Guinea) calling adult males were common c. 100–200 m apart, in slightly rolling topography, in both low swampy forest and poorer, more elevated forest. In Australia, one observer considered female-plumaged individuals to number 15 or 20 for every adult-plumaged male. This species is tolerant of selectively logged forest, and thought not likely to be at any risk in near future. In Australia, an adult male killed and eaten by a Rufous Owl (Ninox rufa) at Iron Range, in Cape York Peninsula.