Paradisaeidae

Paradigalla carunculata
Long-tailed Paradigalla
Langstaartparadigalla (Dutch)

ZMA 32307
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Near-Threatened Restricted to montane forest at 1400-2100 m of the Arfak Mts in the eastern Vogelkop Peninsula of western New Guinea, Indonesia. Though small-scale slash-and-burn agriculture and some disturbance are reported from within this area, the bird is relatively safe, but the distributional range is tiny and the bird would easily become endangered once logging concessions were given out. Recently, a population of Paradigalla was found in the equally small and isolated Fakfak Mts. on the western end of the nearby Onin Peninsula, where two birds of an apparently new species were seen (but not collected) in 1992 (Gibbs 1994; see also below).

Items in the ZMA - 3 birds:
ZMA 32307 [Adult male], undated [before 1894], 'Nederlands Nieuw Guinea' [= Arfak Mts. (c. 01°14'S, 133°50'E), Vogelkop Peninsula], western New Guinea, Indonesia], ex Colonial Institute KM 1131 [= coll. Moraux & Co (Makassar), received Oct 1894] , skin.
[Wing length 184 mm, tail 155 mm, tarsus 49.9 mm, bill to nostril 23.7 mm; tail clearly larger than the measurements given in Frith & Beehler (1998) (tail adult male 122-137 mm).]

ZMA 56978 [Juvenile], undated [before 1894], no locality [= Arkaf Mts. (c. 01°14'S, 133°50'E), Vogelkop Peninsula], western New Guinea, Indonesia, collector unknown [but of Renesse van Duivenbode/ Bruijn make], skin.
[Juvenile plumage, rather inferior in quality, but with the innermost primary new and the two next in active moult. Wing length 162 mm, tail 142.5 mm, tarsus 48.0 mm, bill to nostril 23.4 mm.]

ZMA 56979 [Juvenile male], undated [before 1918], 'Nederlands Nieuw Guinea' [= Fakfak, Onin Peninsula], coll. Gouverneur Palmers van den Broek, received in 1918, skin.
[Wing length 162 mm, tarsus 46.5 mm, bill to nostril 23.9 mm. See below.]

Remarks
Until 1992, two species of Paradigalla were known:
(1) the Long-tailed Paradigalla P. carunculata from the Arkaf Mts on the Vogelkop Peninsula (NW New Guinea), with a long tail (the length of the central feather t1 is 132-170 mm in the adult male, 121-148 mm in the female and juvenile), which is distinctly graduated (the outer tail-feather t6 is 30-50 m shorter than t1), while each tail-feather shows a slightly pointed tip; also, the facial wattle is yellow, the malar wattle blue with a red lower part;
(2) the Short-tailed Paradigalla P. brevicauda of the mountains of C New Guinea, which has a very short tail not reaching beyond the wing-tip at rest (t1 42-73 mm in the adult male, 53-106 mm in the female and juvenile), ending almost square (t6 is on average c. 3 mm longer than t1), and with the tips of each tail-feather slightly notched; also, the head shows a large deep yellow facial wattle and, in adult, an all-blue malar wattle (in juveniles of both species, the malar wattle is yellow) (Frith & Beehler (1998).

The apparent new species seen in the Fakfak Mts. (Gibbs 1994; see above) appeared intermediate between P. carunculata and P. brevicauda; the birds differed from P. carunculata in the very much paler yellow or white facial wattle, a more swollen and paler blue malar wattle, the lack of red on the lower part of the malar wattle (which is, however, also often hard to observe in P. carunculata), and a square-ending tail extending only 3-4 cm beyond the wing-tip at rest (about half the tail-length of P. carunculata, but clearly longer than in adult P. brevicauda) (Gibbs 1994).

The ZMA bird from Palmers van den Broek bears no locality on its label, but some other birds from his collection, prepared in a similar native way [and quite different from native Arfak skins] have Fakfak as origin. Our bird may serve as a type specimen of a new race, but it is alas in poor condition, and exactly those parts of the body which could characterize the new race are absent: the malar wattles are broken off at both sides, and the tail is lacking except for a single feather which appears to be t4 (the 3rd outermost). This feather is c. 20 mm shorter than the t4 of P. carunculata (it has a length from the insertion in the skin of 98 mm and it is clearly shorter than any tail-feather of the two P. carunculata measured), and thus the new taxon may be valid, but as no other differences from the juvenile of P. carunculata in the colour of the plumage or in the colour of the facial wattle could be discerned, no name is proposed here. No Paradigalla is known from the Kumawa Mts. (SW Onin Peninsula) or the Wandammen Mts. at the head of the Geelvink Bay, but the intermediate bird or another may occur there.

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