SICKLEBILL BIRDS-OF-PARADISE: CHARACTERISTICS, BEHAVIOR, SPECIES | Sea Life, Islands and Oceania

LONG-TAILED” SICKLEBILLS (EPIMACHUS)

brown sicklebill

Epimachus is a genus of birds-of-paradise that includes two species and are commonly called long-tailed sicklebills. Found in the highland cloud forests of New Guinea, at elevations from 1525 to 3040 meters *5,000 to 10,000 feet), they are the largest members of the bird-of-paradise family. Their common name "sicklebill" refers to their long, decurved, sickle-shaped bill. [Source: Wikipedia]

Species in the genus Epimachus are often referred to as "long-tailed" sicklebills, as opposed to the the "short-tailed" sicklebills in the genus Drepanornis. In turns out the two genera are not closely related. They may also be confused the birds of the same name that belong to the hummingbird family in the Americas.Sicklebills often associate with astrapias, which are superficially similar but have a short, straight bill and blunt-tipped tail, and the male's wings hiss in flight.

Male long-tailed sicklebills are slender, dark birds with very long tails and long, curved bills. Females are brown and have the same general shape as males but without display feathers. Males are “shape shifters”. This means that during their courtship display, while perching, they transform their body outline to a long, cometlike oval

The two long-tailed sicklebills species are: 1) Black sicklebill (Epimachus fastosus), found in the Vogelkop region, Wandammen Peninsula, and central New Guinea at elevations; and 2) the Brown sicklebill (Epimachus meyeri), found across central New Guinea to the Bird's Tail region (Papuan Peninsula) to the southeast. Males of both species have extensive iridescent blackish to their plumage, while females are brown with barred underparts.

Black Sicklebills

black sicklebill male

Black sicklebills (Epimachus fastosus) make up the largest bird-of-paradise species. Males are entirely black except for a fan of long iridescent blue feathers that extend out from either side of their breast. Because they lives in such remote parts of the mountains their courtship display has only recently been observed. The sicklebill's diet consists mainly of fruits and arthropods.

Black sicklebills are found in midmountain forests in the Vogelkop (Bird’s Head) region and Wandammen Peninsula of northwest New Guinea in Indonesia, and central New Guinea at elevations of 1500 to 2000 (4,920 to 6,560 feet). Even though they have a small population size and suffer from habitat loss and hunting for food and tail feathers in some areas, they are still is classified as a species of Least Concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. These birds are helped by the fact that they live in remote places with few humans and much of their habitat is still undisturbed. [Source: Wikipedia]

Adult black sicklebill males around 110 centimeters long, including their central tail feathers; female, are 55 centimeters in length. Male haves a black head with greenish blue and purple sheens and large central back feathers that are iridescent metallic blue-green. Their upperparts are velvet black with purple iridescence. Their underparts are blackish on breast, becoming more brownish towards the tail. They also have elongated pectoral and flank plumes that are black with broad iridescent tips and central tail feathers that are metallic blue-purple. Female lacks iridescence. Their upperparts are shades of brown, and their underparts are buff with dark brown barring. [Source: Australia Museum]

Black Sicklebill Reproduction and Courtship Display

Male black sicklebilla are polygamous and perform a horizontal courtship display with the pectoral plumes raised around its head. Black sicklebills have hybridized with the Arfak astrapia to create offspring that were once considered two distinct species, the Elliot's sicklebill (Epimachus ellioti) and the astrapian sicklebill (Astrapimachus astrapioides). Both species are generally viewed by most mainstream ornithologists as hybrids, but a minority of ornithologists believe that Elliot's sicklebill may be a valid species.

Male black sicklebills usually display between September to October and between February and April and use a pole-like, upstanding branch for their display. Males may practice their display for days on end before actually doing it. Females build and attend to the nests and cares for the eggs alone.

When he’s ready to display, the male advertises the fact with a loud call to attract females. When a female lands on his pole, he fluffs up his pectoral fans to make a comet shape, leaning and bending horizontally. After this opening act, he rises upward and perpendicular to the ground and repeatedly rubs the rachides of his flight feathers together to make woodpecker-like beating sounds, all while slowly orbiting around the female's inquisitive face. Once she's been impressed, the two birds copulate.

Brown Sicklebills

Brown sicklebills (Epimachus meyeri) are birds-of-paradise also known as Bee's sicklebill. They are found mountain forests across central New Guinea to the Bird's Tail region (Papuan Peninsula) of southeastern Papua New Guinea at elevations from 2000 to 3000 meters (6560 to 9840 feet). They were discovered by Europeans by Carl Hunstein in 1884 and named after Adolf Bernard Meyer of Dresden Museum, Germany.

Brown sicklebills are not endangered. Their diet consists mainly of fruits, arthropods and small animals They are classified as a species of Least Concern on the IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Appearance-wise they closely resemble closely- related and larger black sicklebills. In areas where these two species meet, brown sicklebill replaced the black sicklebills at higher altitudes..

Brown sicklebills are large, up to 96 centimeters long, and have dark blue and green highly- iridescent plumages, sickle-shaped bills, pale blue irises and brown underparts. Males are adorned with ornamental plumes on the sides of their rear and a huge sabre-shaped central tail feathers that are highly prized by some groups in New Guinea. Females are a reddish-brown and buff barred black below.

Short-Tailed Sicklebills (Drepanornis)

Drepanornis is a genus of bird-of-paradise found in forests of New Guinea. Commonly called short-tailed sicklebills, they have long decurved sickle-like bills and an overall brown plumage. The genus is sometimes considered a subgenus of Epimachus, but the two genuses are actually quite different. The two members of Drepanornis have far shorter tails and their sexual dimorphism is less extreme.

There are two Drepanornis species: Black-billed sicklebill (Drepanornis albertisi) and Pale-billed sicklebill (Drepanornis bruijnii). Males of both species are drab brown birds with long curved bills. Females are more similar to males than in many birds-of-paradise. Males have “Shape Shifter” displays. Their poorly known display includes fanning flank feathers into a disk They live lowlands up to 2,000 meters (6,560) feet in New Guinea

Black-billed sicklebills (Drepanornis albertiti) are also known as buff-tailed sicklebills. They are medium-sized birds-of-paradise, about 35 centimeters long, brown. Males have a bare maroon grey skin around its eye, buff-colored tail, dark-brown iris, yellow mouth and black sickle-like bill. They are is adorned with dark, horn-like forecrown feathers, an erectile fan-like bronze neck plumes and elongated purple-tipped flank plumes. Female are brown and smaller than males but their bill is longer than males’ and dark-barred below. Black-billed sicklebills are distributed to mountain forests of New Guinea. They are is not endangered. Their diet consists mainly of fruit and arthropods. The female lays one to two pale cream eggs with brown and grey spots.

Pale-billed sicklebills (Drepanornis bruijnii) live lowland rainforests of northern and northwestern New Guinea. They are

medium-sized birds, about 35 centimeters long, and olive brown in color. Males have bare purple grey skin around their eyes, brown irises, a pale sickle-like bill, iridescent red and purple-tipped upper breast plumes, blue and green-tipped ornamental lower breast feathers and purple small horn-like brow feathers. The unadorned female is smaller and paler than the male. Their diet consists mainly of fruits and arthropods. Due to deforestation and habitat loss in on this limited range species, pale-billed sicklebill are classified as as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated February 2025