The Victoria crowned pigeon (''Goura victoria'') is a large, bluish-grey

pigeon Columbidae is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. ...

with elegant blue lace-like crests, maroon breast and red irises. It is part of a genus ( ''Goura'') of four unique, very large, ground-dwelling pigeons native to the

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 ...

region, with the Victoria crowned pigeon measuring as the largest extant species of pigeon. The bird may be easily recognized by the unique white tips on its crests and by its deep 'whooping' sounds made while calling. Its name commemorates the British monarch,

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

Description

The Victoria crowned pigeon is a deep blue-grey colour with a small, black mask. Its feather crest (the signature feature of crowned pigeons other than their size) is conspicuously white-tipped. On the wing coverts is a row of feathers that are a paler blue-gray with maroon tips. These form a distinct wing bar. The chest is a deep purple-maroon color. As in all crowned pigeons,

melanism Melanism is the congenital excess of melanin in an organism resulting in dark pigment. Pseudomelanism, also called abundism, is another variant of pigmentation, identifiable by dark spots or enlarged stripes, which cover a large part of the bod ...

has been observed. The other two crowned pigeons are somewhat superficially similar, but only the

western crowned pigeon The western crowned pigeon (''Goura cristata''), also known as the common crowned pigeon or blue crowned pigeon, is a large, blue-grey pigeon with blue lacy crests over the head and dark blue mask feathers around its eyes. Both sexes are almost s ...

overlaps in range with the Victoria species. The

Scheepmaker's crowned pigeon Scheepmaker's crowned pigeon (''Goura scheepmakeri'') is a large, terrestrial pigeon confined to the lowland forests of south eastern New Guinea. It has a bluish-grey plumage with elaborate blue lacy crests, red Iris (anatomy), iris and very deep ...

does not. In the western species, the crown is more scraggly and hair-like, the chest is a uniform blue-gray and not maroon, and a less distinct wing-bar is present. Both sexes are similar. This species is typically long. Some specimens may exceed a length of and a weight of . It is marginally larger than the two other crowned pigeons on average, at a mean of in adult body mass, thus is considered the largest surviving species of pigeon on Earth. The standard measurements among pigeons on mainland New Guinea are: the wing chord is , the

tail The tail is the elongated section at the rear end of a bilaterian animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage extending backwards from the midline of the torso. In vertebrate animals that evolution, evolved to los ...

is , the

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Pl ...

is and the unfeathered tarsus is . David Gibbs, Eustace Barnes & John Cox. "A Guide to the Pigeons and Doves of the World". Yale University Press (2001), . Like other crowned pigeons, this species makes a loud clapping sound when it takes flight. The mating calls of this species are also similar to the other two species of crowned pigeons, consisting of a deep ''hoota-hoota-hoota-hoota-hoota'' sound. When defending their territories, these birds make a resounding ''whup-up, whup-up, whup-up'' call. Their contact call is a deep, muffled, and rather human-like ''ummm'' or ''hmmm''. The two subspecies of the Victoria crowned pigeon are ''G. v. beccarii'' found on the mainland of New Guinea and ''G. v. victoria'', the nominate race, found on the islands of

Yapen Yapen (also Japen, Jobi) is an island of Papua (province), Papua, Indonesia. The Yapen Strait separates Yapen and the Biak Islands to the north. It is in Cenderawasih Bay off the north-western coast of the island of New Guinea. To the west is ...

Biak Biak is the main island of Biak Archipelago located in Cenderawasih Bay near the northern coast of Papua (province), Papua, an Indonesian province, and is just northwest of New Guinea. Biak has many atolls, reefs, and corals. The largest popula ...

and Supiori. The nominate subspecies is markedly smaller, with a wing chord measurement of , with less robust legs and feet and darker overall plumage. The nominate has a sparser crest with black on the wing coverts and right above the tail.

Habitat

The Victoria crowned pigeon is distributed in the

lowland Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland. Definitions Upland and lowland are portions of a ...

and swamp forests of northern

and surrounding islands. It usually occurs on areas that were former

alluvial plain An alluvial plain is a plain (an essentially flat landform) created by the deposition of sediment over a long period by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A ''floodplain'' is part of the process, bei ...

s, including sago forests. Though typically found at or near sea level, occasionally birds of this species may venture up in the hills to an elevation up to about 3,000 feet.

Behavior

Victorian crowned pigeon displaying wings

Like other crowned pigeons, the Victoria crowned pigeon is a gregarious species. They usually travel in pairs or small parties as they search for food. They walk with an unhurried gait along the forest floor. Their food typically consists of fallen

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

. Birds of this species in captivity are particularly fond of eating

figs The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Moraceae, native to the Mediterranean region, together with western and southern Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and i ...

Seed In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...

s and

invertebrates Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordate subphylum ...

may occasionally supplement the diet. When disturbed, these birds fly straight up into the canopy or a large horizontal branch of a large forest tree. After being disturbed, they may remain on their perch for a considerable time engaging in contact calls and flicking their tails. In the wild, this species tends to be shier than the western crowned pigeon, but can still occasionally be quietly approached. The males regularly engage in aggressive displays to establish dominance. In these interactions, the pigeons puff up their chests and repeatedly raise their wings as if preparing to strike their opponent. They also make short dashes at each other and may actually hit one another, but rarely make contact and can be completely peaceful towards other males outside of the early mating season.

Reproduction

Breeding peaks late in the

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the rainy season or monsoon season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Generally, the season lasts at least one month. The term ''green season'' is also sometimes used a ...

and in the

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The t ...

. When the male displays for the female, he lowers his head down, stretches forward, and then rhythmically swings his head up and down while simultaneously wagging his fanned tail. Although the female does most direct brooding, both parents help raise the young. The female usually lays a single white egg in a well-built tree nest of stems, sticks, and palm leaves. In the weeks before she lays the egg, the male brings nesting material to the female. The egg is incubated around 30 days. The young leave the nest when they are still much smaller than their parents but are actively tended to for a total of 13 weeks.

Status

The Victoria crowned pigeon is now the most rarely occurring of the three crowned pigeon species in the wild, although it is the most widely kept species in captivity. Perhaps the most pressing threat to the species is continuing habitat loss due to logging. It is now quite uncommon near human habitations because it is heavily hunted around them, particularly in areas where gun possession is prevalent. It can be quite tame and easily shot, though it now seems to be fearful of humans in the wild. Most hunting is for its plumes and meat. Trapping of pigeons to be kept alive for captive collections is now illegal but is still likely to be occurring. The Victoria crowned pigeon is evaluated as

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

on the

IUCN Red List 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 ...

of Threatened Species. It is listed in Appendix II of

CITES CITES (shorter acronym for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of inte ...

Gallery

File:Victoria Crowned Pigeon Jurong.jpg File:Victoria Crowned Pigeon Goura victoria Head 2200px.jpg File:Victoria Crowned Pigeon closeup.jpg File:Victoria Crowned Pigeon Goura victoria Wings Spread 2236px.jpg File:VictoriaCrownedPigeon.jpg File:Victoria.crowned.pigeon.750pix.jpg, Victoria crowned pigeon at

Bristol Zoo Bristol Zoo was a zoo in the city of Bristol in South West England. The zoo's stated mission was to "maintain and defend" biodiversity through breeding endangered species, conserving threatened species and habitats and promoting a wider underst ...

, Bristol, England File:Victoria Crowned Pigeon CentralPark Zoo.jpg, Victoria crowned pigeon at Central Park Zoo, NYC, New York File:Indonesia 1984 100r o.jpg, Victoria crowned pigeon in the Indonesian 100-rupiah banknote File:Indonesia1971rp25rev.jpg, Victoria crowned pigeon in the Indonesian 25-rupiah coin File:Victoria crowned pigeon closeup.JPG File:Victoria Crowned Pigeon 058.jpg File:Victoria Crowned Pigeon (7856589332).jpg File:Victoria Crowned Pigeon (24703160080).jpg

References

External links

* ARKive �
images and movies of the Victoria Crowned Pigeon ''(Goura victoria)''

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060210022659/http://www.rdb.or.id/detailbird.php?id=66 Red Data Book
Internationaldovesociety.com
{{Taxonbar, from=Q579213

Victoria crowned pigeon The Victoria crowned pigeon (''Goura victoria'') is a large, bluish-grey pigeon with elegant blue lace-like Crest (feathers), crests, maroon breast and red Iris (anatomy), irises. It is part of a genus (Goura (genus), ''Goura'') of four unique, v ...

Birds of northern New Guinea