The sicklebill's diet consists mainly of fruits and arthropods. — [Tim] And then not only that, he also leans over on his side and bobs up and down. He doesn't use his wings to do this; he uses flank feathers. And that’s just kind of the really incredible part of it – the precision of these feather ornaments to make something so unusual and extraordinary. POWERED BY MERLIN. [Ed] Yeah, I mean, of course there are many broken off snags throughout this forest, and how do you find the one that the black sicklebill’s displaying on? The male of the species is polygamous and performs a horizontal courtship display with the pectoral plumes raised around its head. — [Ed] He lifts those feather up around his head and makes this kind of amazing black ovoid shape, something very non-birdlike. Listen More audio recordings. Unlike most mostly frugivorous cousins, it tends to feed on both items at an equal proportion. Drepanornis albertisi. And on the tip of each of those feathers, it’s tipped with blue, and somehow when he puts all those feathers together and goes horizontal they all line up so perfectly that you get a continuous blue line of feathers. How Yellow-billed Loons Survive in the Arctic, Zoom! Filmed and photographed by Tim Laman. Male + 1. The male transforms into a horizontal comet shape on his display perch. But that all changes when a female comes by. : The Aerial Display of the Common Nighthawk, Storing Food: The Granaries of Acorn Woodpeckers. The spectacular display of the black sicklebill on its display post. Sign in to see your badges. The comet shape is accentuated by a narrow blue band of iridescence created when those flank feathers line up precisely. Whereas if you were just looking at him in normal bird form, all of those feathers would just have blue tips, they wouldn’t make any sense, they wouldn’t line up to make any kind of pattern. These bird-of-paradise have long, down curved bills and very long tails. Passeriformes > Paradisaeidae. He completely changes into something kind of otherworldly. Explore more at www.birdsofparadiseproject.org. Black Sicklebills are elegant, slender birds with long bills and tails. The male transforms into a horizontal comet shape on his display perch. The male transforms into a horizontal comet shape on his display perch. Identification. Keep learning, participate in group conversations. — [Ed] This ovoid shape is made out of dozens of feathers all along the side of his body, on either side. Learn about Black Sicklebill: explore photos, sounds, and observations collected by birders around the world. The Black Sicklebill is the largest-plumbed member of its family; including the tail, the males average 100 cm in length and the females about 48 cm. Black sicklebills, like many of their relatives, are primarily omnivorous, feeding on fruits, insects and other animal prey. So he becomes this sort of comet shape thing. Male display + 1. The Black sicklebill (Epimachus fastosus), is a species of large bird-of-paradise of midmountain forests of New Guinea. — [Ed] He goes from a movement of more or less a recognizable bird-like form, albeit a pretty extraordinary one with his long decurved bill and long tail, and these flank feathers sitting out at his side. It’s one of the displays in which the bird totally changes his shape. — [Tim] Well, the black sicklebill is, I think, is one of the most amazing bird-of paradise displays. He doesn’t use his wings to do this; he uses flank feathers. It’s sort of a dark brown black sort of comet shaped object with a little blue ring around the rim.