The lilac-crowned fruit dove (''Ptilinopus rarotongensis'') also known as the Rarotonga fruit-dove or Cook Islands fruit-dove is a species of

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

doves 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. ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The Lilac-crowned fruit dove occurs in the

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

and is split into two subspecies with their corresponding distribution. * ''Ptilinopus rarotongensis rarotongensis'' – occurs on

Rarotonga Rarotonga is the largest and most populous of the Cook Islands. The island is volcanic, with an area of , and is home to almost 75% of the country's population, with 10,898 of a total population of 15,040. The Parliament of the Cook Islands, Coo ...

* ''Ptilinopus rarotongensis goodwini'' – occurs on

Atiu Ātiu, also known as ʻEnuamanu (meaning ''land of the birds''), is an island of the Cook Islands archipelago, lying in the central-southern Pacific Ocean. Part of the Nga-pu-Toru, it is northeast of Rarotonga. The population of the island has ...

Status

Due to the Lilac-crowned fruit doves occurrence only being seen nowadays on two small islands they are susceptible to sudden storms on the islands. The population is seen as stable but is no larger than 2500 individuals. The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

categorized the dove as "Near Threatened" as of 2021.

References

lilac-crowned fruit dove Birds of the Cook Islands lilac-crowned fruit dove Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Endemic birds of the Cook Islands {{CookIslands-stub