The male has a red iris, long black bill and rich yellow plumes along his flanks.

From the rear of these plumes emerge twelve blackish, wire-like filaments, which bend back near their bases to sweep forward over the bird's hindquarters.

[5] The sole representative of the monotypic genus Seleucidis, the twelve-wired bird-of-paradise is a bird of lowland forests.

[6] They are found in flat lowlands and swamp forests,[6] particularly throughout New Guinea and Salawati Island, Indonesia.

The first successful captive breeding program was at Singapore's Jurong Bird Park, in 2001.