Delightfully perky as is its “post-punk” crest, an adult male Indian flycatcher’s signature feature is the prodigious length of its “tail”/tail feathers.
Evidence suggests that here, size does matter: apparently, individuals with longer tail feathers enjoy greater breeding success.
Generally, extravagant tail feathers are a feature of promiscuous species, but the usually-monogamous Indian paradise flycatcher is a spectacular exception to this “rule”.
Photo is copyright Doug Spencer, taken at 6.01 pm on 20 February 2023, near Vembanad Lake, Kerala, south India
In south India, most adult male paradise flycatchers share the pictured individual’s black-topped, but otherwise white-bodied appearance.
(this so-called “white morph” is not the only one)
Only an extreme/tragic case of “tiger monomania” could blind a visitor to the happy reality that south India offers a huge, highly diverse, oft-colourful array of wildlife-watching delights: it has many other striking mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies….and the plants are also oft-exquisite.