I might not vote any member of the Bird of Paradise family the most beautiful bird in the world, but they are certainly the most ornate and some of their courtship behaviors are absolutely ridiculous.  Human males would have to spend some $100K on their attire to match the cost to these birds of wearing such outfits.  

The first species we saw was the Ragianna Bird of Paradise.  A few males were calling loudly and provocatively shaking their massive tails and lovely wings about.  Reminds one of the streaming rays of a sky rocket.  What a show.  This species is one of several of the genus Paradisea found in different parts of New Guinea.  We saw one other, the Lesser Bird of Paradise, which exhibits similar shape but different colors.  We also saw astrapias, birds of paradise with long streaming tails and short bills, and sickle-bills with equally ridiculous tails and long curved bills.  

We came to New Guinea in large part to see members of this extradinary group of birds.  Our guide chided, “nobody comes to PNG to see the scrubwrens.”  That is true, but New Guinea is home to several other strange and interesting bird families that are scarcely found elsewhere.  We enjoyed them all, even the scrubwrens which you may guess are LBJ’s, little brown jos.