Lawes' Parotia (Parotia lawesii)

The Parotia Bird of Paradise, with his head pennants, looks at first sight to be one of the more sober members of the family. Except for a white disc on his forehead, he is dressed entirely in black. Perhaps, the Parotia Bird of Paradise has the most theatrical courtship performance.

Before he starts, he inspects his dancing stage with great care, removing any fragment of leaf and twig that might have fallen on it since he was last there. Then he makes a series of scuttling runs across the stage, letting out shrill calls. This announces that he is about to give a performance and usually an audience of several drab females will arrive within several minutes and take up their seats on a horizontal branch to one side. As they settle in, he makes another tour of the stage. It is immaculate, but even so, just to underline the point, he mimics, pretending to pick up non-existent leaves and then casting them aside.

His dance begins. He lifts himself high and holds out his long body feathers so that, with his wings, they form a circular skirt like a crinoline. He erects his breast feathers so that they catch the light and you can see that although they had seemed plain black, they are in fact iridescent and form a glinting shield, part greenish-blue part gold. Facing his audience, he waltzes from side to side. Abruptly, he stops and for a moment is rigid. Then, standing on the spot with feet astride, he begins to twirl his head so that the pennants of his tiara are lost in a blur. Suddenly he leaps into the air, lands onto the back of one of the females in the audience and mates with her.