A Fei, we really saw the "Great" bird

Article / Hu Ruocheng (Peking University)

"There is a kind of bird in the world that there are no feet,

It can only fly like this, fly,

When you are tired, you sleep in the wind,

This kind of bird can only land once in a lifetime,

That time was the time when it died. "

Director Wang Jiawei's classic line in "A Fei" wrote the mood of the protagonist A Fei. And this "feet" bird full of mysterious, romantic, sadness, is the protagonist of this article -Bliss Bird.

The beautiful legend of Bliss Bird

In 1522, after three years of life and death, the Magellan fleet returned to Spain to complete the feat of the first global voyage. Among the many rare goods and loot on the boat, a group of bird specimens from the East India Islands were the most noticeable: these birds have no feet and wings, and the sides and tails of the body have long and slender feathers. Gold and green metal luster is very strange.

Early Dajie Bird painting without feet and wings (pictured: Ulisis Aldrovan)

People imagine that this bird can only float in the air throughout the life, dancing the feathers, and eating dew, like an angel in the bliss world. The Portuguese is named Passaros de COL. Of course, from a scientific perspective, there are no birds without wings and feet in the world. The "Paradise Birds" seen by Europeans are just fur specimens used by local indigenous peoples for decoration.

The romantic and mysterious name of Bird-OF-PARADISE was retained. In 1758, Lin Nai, the father of modern biological classification, named the earliest bliss that was discovered as Paradisaea Apoda. The Latin name was "feet with busty birds" to commemorate the initial discovery of this type of bird.

Reveal the mysterious veil of the Bird

The beauty and mystery of these birds have attracted many scientists to pay attention and research. In the masterpiece of Alverd Wallace's masterpiece "Scientific Investigation of the Malay Islands", the subtitle is "Red Moso Orangutan and Bliss Bird". ) In addition to describing the appearance characteristics of many bliss birds, the book also records the breeding behavior of the Bliss Bird and the local indigenous hunting of the bliss birds.

Alfred's masterpiece "Scientific Inspection of the Malay Islands", the cover is a golden -winged pole bird

The results of modern bird classification show that bliss birds are typical tropical rain forest birds and belong to the Paradisaeidae family. The bright colors and gorgeous shapes are to better breed in the complex rain forest environment. They mainly use all kinds of fruits in the rain forest as food, and individuals such as Epimachus FastOSUSus, which are specially curved with beaks to capture insects and other limb animals.

Seeking their ability on the field

Generally speaking, bliss birds have more bright colors, longer specialized head feathers or tail feathers. These slender feathers are actually formed by losing the feather axis of feather branches. Show off. So, why did the Birds have evolved such a striking body color in the rainforest of natural enemies, and there are exaggerated and cumbersome decorative feathers? Taking the well -known sexual choice theory proposed by Wallace to explain: Take the Big Bird as an example. During the breeding season, the male big pole bird birds will gather in a place called "puppet field". , Show your gorgeous dress and dancing posture, and compare each other, the winner can be favored by female bliss birds. In other words, these exaggerated and gorgeous feathers are actually props to show their own strength and excellent genes, which is conducive to female bliss birds to choose excellent spouses to maintain the survival and reproduction of the entire species.

Big Bird

Among all bliss birds, the dance posture of Lophorina Superba is the most magical. When the male bliss birds are seeking puppets, they will open the blue feathers on their chests and show their wings forward. It is like a dancer in a black skirt. Happy. In addition, some studies have found that the black feathers of the gorgeous bliss may be the most "dark" thing in nature, which can absorb up to 99.95%of light and present a real "black". Researchers speculate that this extremely black feather can set off a gorgeous bliss -blue chest feathers and gorgeous eye feathers to increase its sexual attractiveness.

Huamei Bliss Puppet Dance (Photo Supply: Edwin Scott)

Birdologists' research on Bliss Birds is still continuing, but a large number of bliss birds are arrested and killed into decorations for sale. With the faster of the New Guinea forest fell, the habitat of Bliss Birds is constantly being destroyed. In order to allow Bliss Birds to continue to dance in the "Bliss World" that belongs to them, let us protect wildlife, and resolutely say illegal pitying!

This article comes from the magazine of "Knowledge is Power". The original title was "The Second Section of the Tropical Rain Forest World -Bliss Bird". The cover map is the stills of the movie "A Fei".

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