New Bird of Paradise Species Has Smooth Dance Moves

It's hard to find a more superb bird than the superb bird of paradise.

Males have an elaborate courtship ritual, during which they spread out their black cape until only a bright blue breast plate and blue eyes are visible in an all-absorbing blackness.

Then he puts on a dance, moving around a female in semi-circle motions until she's wooed.

Until recently, scientists thought the superb bird was unique among the 43 birds of paradise that comprise the family Paradisaeidae. But in a new paper in the journal PeerJ , ornithologist Edwin Scholes and photographer Tim Laman detail a new addition: the Vogelkop superb bird-of-paradise.=read more