Hill Pigeon - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by martinuk
Zing Chen camp, Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, India, July 2005

Columba rupestris

Identification

31–35 cm (12¼-13¾ in)

• Darkish grey head, neck and throat
• Pale grey upperparts
• Two black wingbars
• White tail with a black terminal band.

Distribution

Central Asia, Tibet and western China

Taxonomy

Subspecies

There are 2 subspecies^[1]:

• C. r. turkestanica:

• Altai Mountains to Turkestan, Tibet and northern Himalayas

• C. r. rupestris:

• Western Mongolia to eastern Tibet, southern China and Korea

Habitat

Mountainous rocky areas, cliffs and gorges.

Behaviour

Diet

Their main diet consists of weed seeds, grain and green shoots from crops, leaves and small snails. They forage in small flocks.

Breeding

They construct a twiggy platform nest in cliffs or crags.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2018. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2018. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved October 2018)

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Hill Pigeon. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 25 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Hill_Pigeon

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