Geelvink Imperial Pigeon - BirdForum Opus

This image is dark compared to others found online
Photo by mehdhalaouate
Numfor, Papua, Indonesia, September 2004

Identification

41-43 cm.

Pale grey head, neck and breast, with only breast tinged pink
Creamy white band at base of black bill
Pale mauve or greyish pink lower breast and belly, merging into grey of upper breast and darker greyish-pink flanks, with dark chestnut undertail-coverts
Mantle, rump and wing-coverts iridescent emerald-green , sometimes with blue or bronzy sheen
Blackish green to blackish blue primaries, secondaries and rectrices
Eye yellow and striking

Found on islands off western New Guinea (Indonesia), more specifically in Geelvink Bay (Meos Num, Numfor and Biak).

This is a monotypic species^[1].

Formerly included in Spice Imperial Pigeon.

Occurs in primary, secondary and logged forest. Also in mangroves. From sea-level up to 500 m.

Generally considered resident but one record from mainland New Guinea indicates wandering.

Frequently reported from fruiting trees and therefore assumed to be mainly living from fruit, like closely related species does.

Said to give calls that are hoarse to growling, at a rate of one per second.

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2022. IOC World Bird List (v 12.2) DRAFT. Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.12.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
del Hoyo, J., L. F. Baptista, N. Collar, P. W. Trail, G. M. Kirwan, H. M. Horblit, and E. F. J. Garcia (2022). Geelvink Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula geelvinkiana), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (B. K. Keeney, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.spiimp2.01

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Geelvink Imperial Pigeon. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 23 November 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Geelvink_Imperial_Pigeon

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