News Animals

Science has finally cracked male riflebirds’ flirty secrets

These birds of paradise take wrist bending to extremes and play percussion on their feathers

A black-colored bird arcs his wings, making a full circle around his head, as part of his courtship display.

A flirtatious male Victoria’s riflebird’s unusual wrist bones let him hyperextend his wings into a dark arc of feathers while courting.

Jill Duncan & Ken Bissett, Macaulay Library/Cornell Lab of Ornithology

By Susan Milius

New video of male riflebirds’ extreme wrist flares and feather noises reveals how these show-offs do their dazzle.

Males of the four Ptiloris species, a group within the birds of paradise native to Australia and New Guinea, have long fascinated biologists as well as female birds with their courtship displays.