“There is the severest rivalry between the males of many species to attract,” said Charles Darwin in the 1850s. But nowhere is this rivalry as brilliant and bizarre as it is among the tropical birds-of-paradise. “Males display their gorgeous plumage and perform strange antics before the females,” Darwin stated of the birds, “which, standing by as spectators, choose the most attractive partner.”
Indeed, the odd beauty and outlandish behavior of male birds-of-paradise are so strange that they sometimes feel impossible to fathom. But ornithologists say that there's a whole lot to learn about these birds, and about their mating practices in particular. So, with that in mind, this is what we know about the birds-of-paradise and their complex process of courtship.
Paradisaeidae
Commonly called the birds-of-paradise, the Paradisaeidae are a family of birds famous for their bizarre beauty. Tracing their ancestry to a tropical crow-like creature that lived approximately 24 million years ago, the birds within this family spent many millennia developing their own distinctive traits.
