"During his travels in the Malay Archipelago, the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace saw several different species of bird of paradise (including one, the Wallace Standardwing, that was previously unknown to science) and became the first European to observe these magnificent birds during their breeding display. These observations helped him independently discover the theory of evolution by natural selection, and it was his famous “Ternate” letter to Charles Darwin outlining his ideas on the subject that finally prompted Darwin to jointly present their groundbreaking papers on evolution to the Linnean Society in 1858."
Excerpt from "Birds", published by Abrams, 2021