Old World Warblers
Ben Crair, 9 June 2022
The Largest Avian Radiation: The Evolution of Perching Birds, or the Order Passeriformes
by Jon Fjeldså, Les Christidis and Per G.P. Ericson.
Lynx, 445 pp., €85, November 2020,978 84 16728 33 6 Show More
by Jon Fjeldså, Les Christidis and Per G.P. Ericson.
Lynx, 445 pp., €85, November 2020,
“... For millions of years, male birds-of-paradise have been striking courtship poses in the forests of New Guinea. The black sicklebill perches on a stump, opens his shoulder plumes and tips forward, stretching his tail feathers out, like an obsidian comet. The blue bird-of-paradise hangs upside down from a branch and flounces his aquamarine gown. The twelve-wired bird-of-paradise bounces his banana-yellow backside, while Carola’s parotia sports a black-feather tutu and six-step dance routine ... ”