Trumpet Manucode Click to enlarge image
Trumpet Manucode drawn by William T. Cooper. Image: William T. Cooper
© William T. Cooper

Fast Facts

Common name

Trumpet Manucode

Scientific name

Phonygammus keraudrenii

Etymology

Phonygammus (Greek, wedded to sound, alludes to loud voice); keraudrenii, after Pierre François Keraundren, French surgeon-naturalist; common name alludes to the loud voice.

Description

Sexually monomorphic. Adult males, 31 cm; females, 28 cm. Adult plumage overall glossy blue-black with distinctively elongated ‘ear tuffs’ and tatty ‘mane’ of nape and neck feathers. Adult females have somewhat duller underparts.

Diet

Mainly fruit and invertebrates.

Habitat

Rainforests of lowland, hill and mid montane zones; also at forest edges and secondary growth and occasionally mangroves in Australia; 200-2000 m, mainly 900-1800 m.

Courtship

Single male chases female then displays with frontal lunge and loud harsh call. Breeding season undefined but displays noted during March, May and August and copulation in mid November.

Breeding

Monogamous; both sexes attend the nest during incubation, brooding and feeding. Some pair bonds exist for more than one season.

Status and conservation

Not threatened; locally common although populations on some islands and in Australia are patchy and fragmented.

Distribution

New Guinea: lowlands and nearby islands; Australia: northern Cape York Peninsula.