Relationship with Humans

Vernacular Names

Frith and Beehler (8 Frith, C. B., and B. M. Beehler (1998). The Birds of Paradise. Paradisaeidae. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close ) reported a number of local names for the species: Wougle-bogamp in the Kubor Mts., Wo-glia-bora on Mt. Hagen (4 Mayr, E., and E. T. Gilliard (1954). Birds of central New Guinea. Results of the American Museum of Natural History Expeditions to New Guinea in 1950 and 1952. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 103(4):311–374. Close ), and Keko among the Gimi people on Mt. Crater.

Alternatively, when the Cnemophilidae were considered to form a distinct subgroup within the Paradisaeidae, this species has been called Sickle-crested, Multi-crested, MacGregor’s, or Black-and-gold Bird-of-Paradise.

English name is derived from Sir William MacGregor, who collected the first individual of this species on Mt. Knutsford in 1889, and was Administrator and later the Lieutenant Governor of British New Guinea during 1888–98 (47 Jobling, J. A. (2010). Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. A. & C. Black, London, UK. Close ). As discussed by Frith (48 Frith, C. B. (2020). The New Guinea bird names Macgregor’s Bowerbird and Macgregor’s Honeyeater. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 140(2):214–216. Close ), there has been confusion over the spelling of MacGregor’s surname; it seems that the family name was originally, and thus formally, McGregor but he adopted the spelling MacGregor while in New Guinea as his personal preference.