Birds of Paradise

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Oh I am sure that they did not find them lying in the ground. The quantity of feathers from the same bird combined,- shows that. The hunting of these birds for obtaining these feathers has been going on surely for many centuries. It is also hinted at being a sort of status symbol or maybe used in trade. A TV doco that has been on more than once has looked at people surveying these head-dresses in recent times and comparing them to film of decades ago to try get some idea as to how the numbers of various species have changed. One of the better things it showed that was at least a small improvement was teaching these people how to store these feathers to maybe reduce their desire to constantly go out and kill more birds to get more feathers.

 

Philip

 

-----Original Message-----From: Trish Munro [ Sent: Monday, 28 January 2013 5:48 PM
To: ; Canberra Birds      Cc:       Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Birds of Paradise

Hi all,
 
RE: Birds of Paradise
 
I just thought I would add that the Museum Victoria  http://museumvictoria.com.au/ currently has an exhibition of the Birds of Paradise.
They are (unfortunately) 'taxidermied' specimens in glass cabinets but they are amazing and the interpretation is very good.
There are some great video clips, very much like this one, on display.
 
The only aspect I didn't enjoy was the use of all these magnificent feathers in the indigenous people's headresses and attire.
Perhaps they found them lying in the ground.......??
 
Thanks for this clip Ray!
 
Cheers,
Trish 

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From:       To:       CC:
Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2013 14:55:31 +1100      Subject: [canberrabirds] Birds of Paradise

Hi All – You may be interested to give this video a look.

 

Ray Comer

 

http://www.cornell.edu/video/?VideoID=2398