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BirdNote: Where Are All The Queen Birds?

Richard Bowdler Sharpe

In the world of birds, you’ll find King Penguins, King Vultures, King Eiders, 89 species of kingfishers, 11 species of kingbirds, and three species tiny kinglets. But of the 10,000 species of birds around the globe, there are no “queens.”

Once upon a time, there was a species of bird-of-paradise named Queen Carola’s Parotia (illustrated here). Carola was the wife of King Albert the 1st of Saxony, who also had a bird named for him, the King of Saxony Bird-of-Paradise. Alas, the queen’s bird had its name trimmed to the more tidy “Carola’s Parotia.”   

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