Victoria’s Riflebird: a dancing black hole in the rainforest

Scott Ritchie | Guest Contributor

In the Wet Tropics of Far North Queensland, we have a bird that baffles light – that bends light to its will – that is a dancing, swaying black hole of a bird. All to woo a female. This is Victoria’s Riflebird.

Male Victoria’s Riflebird: a rather innocuous looking black bird. Photo by Scott Ritchie.

In late September this year, I was privileged to spend a weekend at the Atherton Birdwatchers Cabin near Wondecla, Queensland. While I was interested in seeing all the birds that one can see from the deck of this beautiful cabin, I was particularly intent on capturing images of the Victoria’s Riflebird performing its pole dance. I had my new Canon R5-Mark II camera, and my dependable 100-500 RF zoom lens. I was keen to see how it captured this iconic bird as it performed its tango.

Victoria’s Riflebird is one of three Riflebirds, in the Birds of Paradise family, that occur in Australia. The other two are the Magnificent Riflebird that occurs in the rainforest areas in eastern Cape York, and the Paradise Riflebird that occurs in rainforest of south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales.

Riflebirds are named for their stylishly deep black body plumage, reminiscent of the black-clad British Rifle Brigade of the Napoleonic Wars. But this is black, deep black. Indeed it is referred to as “super black” by ornithologist Richard Prum.

Spectral measurements indicate that the black feathers of Riflebirds (and many other Birds of Paradise) absorb over 99% of incoming light. The amazing trick of physics that they use to absorb light was investigated by McCoy et al. (2018) who found that unlike typical feathers, the black feathers of Birds of Paradise consist of unique overlapping plates resembling oak leaves on a twig. Instead of being reflected back from the feather, light hitting these loosely stacked ‘leaves’ reflects into the feather interior, where it bounces around “in a house of mirrors”. Less than 1% of light escapes, creating a super black plumage.

Why would a bird have super black plumage? The black plumage is a ‘canvas’ that provides a contrast for areas of highly reflective, iridescent feathers that the male uses to woo the female.

On its tree stump dance floor, the male Victoria’s Riflebird yells out, then suddenly raises and spreads its wings creating a circular black canvas. Indeed, the Victoria’s Riflebird wrist can be hyperextended to nearly 60° to create this circular black hole backdrop.

For dancing, the male flies to an upright stump, then announces his presence in a loud “YAASSS” that can be heard throughout the rainforest. Photo by Scott Ritchie.

Male Victoria’s Riflebird in full circular wing display. Photo by Scott Ritchie.

From just the right angle, the super black feathers refract sunlight into a rainbow of colours. Photo by Scott Ritchie.

A prospective mate arrives and perches fetchingly in front of our eager male, concentrating on the theatre in front of her.

Classic upright circular wing pose, exposing yellow gape and iridescent blue throat. I like the rainbow iridescence at the bottom of the grey breast bib. Photo by Scott Ritchie.

He alternately raises each wing – left, right, left right, faster and faster. The wing tips clap, and he swishes his head behind the raised wing. He looks like he’s lost his head over her.

The male often appears headless, as he swings his head back-and-forth behind alternately raised wings. This happens repeatedly, faster and faster.

The wings tips are clapped, and the female is literally mesmerized. Photo by Scott Ritchie.

Where is he? The male hides behind his left wing, while the female looks behind the right wing. The male’s bill is very close to his left wing which he’ll rub to create a rasping sound. Photo by Scott Ritchie.

The male has quite a repertoire of dance moves. Here he is, lowering the wing circle down into the ‘flying saucer dance’, rubbing his bill to create a rasping sound. Photo by Scott Ritchie.

The brilliant iridescent blue throat patch dances like a cobra. But this is more than playing peekaboo. When swishing his head, the male rubs his bill on the back of his wing to create a rasping sound.

Then he pauses, looks straight ahead and opens his bill wide to reveal a startling yellow gape. The female then either flies off, or allows the male to mate.

A back view showing the super black feathers and iridescent blue and green on the back of the head and tail. I think he looks beautiful from this angle too. Photo by Scott Ritchie.

It’s interesting that the immature males also spend a lot of time working on their dance routine. In many ways I find their rich browns as attractive as the jet black of the adult male.

These dances aren’t learnt overnight. Here an immature Victoria’s Riflebird practices a classic move. Photo by Scott Ritchie.

I hope you enjoy these photographs. I hope you get the opportunity to watch our pole-dancing birds perform, a true spectacle of our tropical rainforest.

Further reading

Frith CB & Beehler BM. (1998). The Birds of Paradise. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

Frith C, Frith D, & Christie DA. (2020). Magnificent Riflebird (Ptiloris magnificus), version 1.0. IN Birds of the World (J del Hoyo, A Elliott, J Sargatal, DA Christie, & E de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.magrif3.01

Frith C & Frith D. (2020). Paradise Riflebird (Ptiloris paradiseus), version 1.0. IN Birds of the World (J del Hoyo, A Elliott, J Sargatal, DA Christie, & E de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.parrif1.01

Frith C & Frith D. (2020). Victoria's Riflebird (Ptiloris victoriae), version 1.0. IN Birds of the World (J del Hoyo, A Elliott, J Sargatal, DA Christie, & E de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.vicrif1.01

MacGillavry T, Frith CB, & Fusani L. (2024). The mechanics of male courtship display behaviour in the Ptiloris riflebirds (Aves: Paradisaeidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 143(1), p.blae077

McCoy DE, Feo T, Harvey TA, & Prum RO. (2018). Structural absorption by barbule microstructures of super black bird of paradise feathers. Nature Communications, 9(1), p.1.