Elliot's bird of paradise is a bird in the family

Paradisaeidae The birds-of-paradise are members of the Family (biology), family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes. The majority of species are found in eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and eastern Australia. The family has 45 species in 17 genera. T ...

, first described by Edward Ward in 1873, but which was later proposed to be a

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

rather than a “real” species, an identity since confirmed by

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

analysis.

History

Only two adult male specimens are known of this bird, held in the British Natural History Museum (BMNH) and the Dresden Natural History Museum, and presumably deriving from the

Vogelkop Peninsula The Bird's Head Peninsula (Indonesian: , , meaning Bird's Head in Indonesian and Dutch) or Doberai Peninsula (''Semenanjung Doberai'') is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of New Guinea, comprising the Indonesia ...

of north-western

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. In 1930,

Erwin Stresemann Erwin Friedrich Theodor Stresemann (22 November 1889, in Dresden – 20 November 1972, in East Berlin) was a German naturalist and ornithologist. Stresemann was an ornithologist of extensive breadth who compiled one of the first and most comprehe ...

inspected both specimens and declared Elliot's Bird of Paradise to be an intergeneric

between a

black sicklebill The black sicklebill (''Epimachus fastosus'') is a large member of the birds of paradise family, Bird-of-paradise, Paradisaeidae. This species is found throughout most of central New Guinea and the Bird's Head Peninsula, Vogelkop region to the ...

and

Arfak astrapia The Arfak astrapia (''Astrapia nigra'') is a species of astrapia, a group of birds found in the birds-of-paradise family Bird-of-paradise, Paradiseidae. Taxonomy The Arfak astrapia was Species description, formally described in 1788 by the German ...

. Other ornithologists dispute this claim. Errol Fuller argues that the astrapia is a fanciful choice made with little supporting evidence, and that Elliot's Bird of Paradise is much smaller than the two proposed parent species. The specimens show a number of characteristics not present in either parent species, adding weight to the possibility of the specimens constituting a unique species. As recently as 2012, Julian Hume and Michael Walters suggested that it is likely the elusive bird is either rare or extinct. In 2024 a study which extracted DNA from the BMNH specimen confirmed that the astrapia parentage is incorrect, but revealed it to actually be an

F1 hybrid F1 hybrid (also known as filial 1 hybrid) is the first filial generation of offspring of distinctly different parental types. F1 hybrids are used in genetics, and in selective breeding, where the term F1 crossbreed may be used. The term is somet ...

between a

long-tailed paradigalla The long-tailed paradigalla (''Paradigalla carunculata'') is a large, approximately 37 cm long, black bird-of-paradise with long and pointed tail. One of the most plain members in the family Paradisaeidae, its only adornment is the colorful f ...

and a black sicklebill.Thörn ''et al.'' (2024).

Notes

References

* * * * * Hybrid birds of paradise Birds of the Doberai Peninsula Intergeneric hybrids {{Paradisaeidae-stub