Diphyllodes respublica
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
Wilson's bird-of-paradise (Diphyllodes respublica) is a species of passerine bird of the family Paradisaeidae. The first footage of the Wilson's bird-of-paradise ever to be filmed was recorded in 1996 by David Attenborough for the BBC documentary Attenborough in Paradise. He did so by dropping leaves on the forest floor, which irritated the bird into clearing them away.
The controversial scientific name respublica of this species was given by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's nephew and a republican idealist. The habit of zoologists at that time to dedicate newly discovered species to some king, queen, or aristocrat deeply irritated him. In order to assert his convictions, he chose to name this species respublica to honour the republic and not the royalty.
Charles Lucien Bonaparte described the bird from a badly damaged trade specimen purchased by British ornithologist Edward Wilson. In doing so, he beat John Cassin, who wanted to name the bird in honour of Wilson, by several months. Thirteen years later, in 1863, the German zoologist Heinrich Agathon Bernstein discovered the home grounds of the Wilson's bird-of-paradise on Waigeo Island.
An... Wikipedia →
Recording0:18
Indonesia · 2023
© Abby Hyde · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:03
Indonesia · 2025
© crittersandcreatures-1 · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:08
Indonesia · 2023
© JaeDong Gim · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raja Ampat | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Wilson's Bird-Of-Paradise sighting in Raja Ampat on a given day, based on 517 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 29th most-seen of the 200 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July–August and October–November
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Wilson's Bird-Of-Paradise in Raja Ampat on a given day, against about 20% in December to April, the lowest months.
Between 5 and 8 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Wilson's Bird-Of-Paradise sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
Only Raja Ampat, in our data
Raja Ampat is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Wilson's Bird-Of-Paradise sightings: about 30% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Paradisaeidae
The closest relatives of the Wilson's Bird-Of-Paradise that you can see in Raja Ampat (family Paradisaeidae, Birds-of-Paradise) are Red Bird-of-Paradise (about 50%) and Glossy-mantled Manucode (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Wilson's Bird-Of-Paradise is recorded against all the birds logged in Raja Ampat (517 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
