Crescent-caped lophorina, Curl-caped bird-of-paradise
The crescent-caped lophorina or Vogelkop superb bird-of-paradise (Lophorina niedda ), sometimes noted as the curl-caped bird-of-paradise, is a species of the Paradisaeidae (bird-of-paradise) family. It is endemic to the Bird's Head Peninsula in New Guinea (Vogelkop in Dutch). First described in 1930 by Ernst Mayr, it had been treated as a subspecies of the superb bird-of-paradise but was elevated to the status of a full species in 2018 based on its striking black plumage that its feathers absorb 99.95 percent of light and behavioral differences especially visible in the courting male, as shown in audiovisual data documented by Scholes and Timothy Laman of Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology.
The crescent-caped lophorina's scientific name consists of the words lophorina, meaning "tuft/crest-nose", referring to the upward-standing tufts of feathers behind each nostril, and niedda which refers to the native onomatopoeic name for a bird-of-paradise. The subspecies, L. n. inopinata 's specific name means unexpected or unlooked for.
The crescent-caped lophorina is found in the mountains of Bird's Neck Peninsula, in Western New Guinea, Indonesia. It is typically found at heights of 1200–2000 m.
