Black Sicklebills are elegant, slender birds with long bills and tails. But that all changes when a female comes by. The male transforms into a horizontal comet shape on his display perch. He doesn’t use his wings to do this; he uses flank feathers. The comet shape is accentuated by a narrow blue band of iridescence created when those flank feathers line up precisely. Filmed and photographed by Tim Laman and Eric Liner.

There are currently seventy-two short films in the entire Birds-of-Paradise Project playlist, ranging from 26 seconds to 8:29. In the upcoming weeks, we will present some of our favorites.

A film from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. If no film or link appears in this email, go to the blog to view it by clicking on the blog title above. If the film stops & starts in an annoying manner, press pause (lower left double bars ||) to let it buffer and get ahead of you.  [Chuck Almdale]