Magnificent Bird-of-paradise

The Magnificent Bird-of-paradise, Cicinnurus magnificus is a small, up to 26 cm-long, bird-of-paradise with extremely complex plumage. The male has seemingly incandescent yellow wings, an iridescent-green breast shield, blue feet, and is adorned with a yellow mantle on its neck. It has two long, curved, blue-green sickle-like tail feathers. The female is a comparatively drab olive-brown bird with black-barred buffy underparts. It lays two creamy yellow eggs.

The Magnificent Bird-of-paradise is distributed amongst the hill and mid-mountain forests of New Guinea and surrounding islands. Its diet consists mainly of fruits. Like most members of the Paradisaeidae family, the male is polygamous and performs an elaborate courtship display.

A widespread and common species throughout its large range, the Magnificent Bird-of-paradise is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES.