Brown sicklebill

The brown sicklebill (Epimachus meyeri), also known as Bee's sicklebill, is a species of bird-of-paradise.

Brown sicklebill
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Paradisaeidae
Genus: Epimachus
Species:
E. meyeri
Binomial name
Epimachus meyeri
Finsch & Meyer, 1885

It is distributed to mountain forests of New Guinea, Its appearance resembles the closely related and larger black sicklebill. In areas where these two large sicklebills met, the brown sicklebill replaced the latter species in higher altitudes. Its diet consists mainly of fruits, arthropods and small animals.

This bird was first recorded by Carl Hunstein in 1884 and named after Adolf Bernard Meyer of Dresden Museum, Germany.

The brown sicklebill is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES.

Description
Female in Papua New Guinea
Male in Papua New Guinea

The brown sicklebill is large, up to 96 cm long, dark blue and green with highly iridescent plumages, a sickle-shaped bill, pale blue iris and brown underparts. The male is adorned with ornamental plumes on the sides of its rear and a huge sabre-shaped central tail feathers that are highly prized by natives. The female is a reddish-brown bird with buff barred black below.

Subspecies
  • Epimachus meyeri albicans
  • Epimachus meyeri bloodi
  • Epimachus meyeri megarhynchus
  • Epimachus meyeri meyeri

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Epimachus meyeri". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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