The bar-tailed cuckoo-dove or black-billed cuckoo-dove (''Macropygia nigrirostris'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the family

Columbidae Columbidae is a bird Family (biology), family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the Order (biology), order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in ...

. It is native to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

and the

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about . History The first inhabitants of the archipela ...

. It is rated as a species of

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Endangered Species.

Description

The bar-tailed cuckoo-dove measures in length. It has a short, completely black bill. The six central tail feathers are black barred. The central breast feathers are not bifurcated. The male is ruddy-brown, with no clear distinction between the

underparts Standard anatomical terms of location are used to describe unambiguously the anatomy of humans and other animals. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position provi ...

and the upperparts. The female, however, has black barred upperparts. The juvenile is similar to the female, but its tail is barred irregularly. It is differentiated from other

sympatric In biology, two closely related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter each other. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct spe ...

(other species existing in the same geographic area and thus frequently encountering with it) pigeons other than cuckoo-doves, by its chestnut brown plumage and slender, long tail.

Distribution and habitat

It is native to

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. It inhabits

old-growth forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...

s, forest peripheries, and second-growth forests. It also occurs commonly on submontane forests on altitudes of up to from sea levels, and occasionally at sea levels on hills adjacent to coasts.

Status and conservation

Since 1988, the bar-tailed cuckoo-dove has been rated as a species of

on the

IUCN Red List of Endangered Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological spe ...

. This is because it has a very large range—more than 20,000 km² (7,700 mi²)—and because it has a stable population trend. Also, although its population numbers has not been determined, it is commonly found throughout most of its distribution, it is thought to be above 10,000 which is above the criterion to warrant it a vulnerable rating. There are no substantial threats thought to be to this species.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1267098 bar-tailed cuckoo-dove Birds of New Guinea Birds of the Bismarck Archipelago bar-tailed cuckoo-dove Taxonomy articles created by Polbot