Digging on the Net: Birds of Paradise

A few weeks ago, I found myself walking down my driveway after a long day of school. I turned to my left and saw the mail had come in, so I decided to grab it and save my parents some trouble. However, I noticed I got a new edition of National Geographic magazine in the mail, and one of the sections listed on the cover said something about the Birds of Paradise, scientifically known as the Paradisaeidae, and are best known for their spectacular and diverse plumage in males. I entered my house, dropped all my things on the way up to my room, and quickly indulged into the world of these spectacular and diverse birds.

It turned out that after 8 years of looking and studying Birds of Paradise, photographer Tim Laman and Cornell University ornithologist Ed Scholes were able to be able to document and photograph every living member of the family, including the never-before photographed and rarely ever witnessed Buff-Tailed Sicklebill. Their discoveries and footage include never-before seen views of these animals, and completely unexpected realizations about their mating behaviors. I wasn't going to make a post about this, but a recent National Geographic Live! interview has given me a good chance to show you all just how spectacular these creatures are:

I know there's been a lot of bird-related things on this blog recently, but expect it, since birds are the living representatives of Dinosaurs, and in my opinion, we should be basing Dinosaur behavior off them. In my opinion, if a bird practices some type of behavior, then Dinosaurs probably would've done similar, of not the same behavior. And yes, that includes the possibility that male T-rex were dancing around, clearing areas on forest floors in order to make them seem sexier to females of their species.

Yes, I know, I'm working on the Neosuchian post. I'm just stuck on this one part and currently looking for the information to refresh my memory on it. It'll be within the month, but expect some shorter posts in the meantime.