The short-billed pigeon (''Patagioenas nigrirostris'')Johnson, Kevin P.; de Kort, Selvino; Dinwoodey, Karen, Mateman, A. C.; ten Cate, Carel; Lessells, C. M. & Clayton, Dale H. (2001): A molecular phylogeny of the dove genera ''Streptopelia'' and ''Columba''. ''

Auk Auks or alcids are birds of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the Uria, murres, guillemots, Aethia, auklets, puffins, and Brachyramphus, murrelets. The family contains 25 extant or recently extinct speci ...

'' 118(4): 874–887
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is a largish

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. ...

which breeds from southern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

south to northwestern

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. It is a member of a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

of ''Patagioenas'' that contains the smaller and rather plain species with characteristic calls that constitute the subgenus ''Oenoenas''.Mahler, Bettina & Tubaro, Pablo L. (2001): Relationship between song characters and morphology in New World pigeons. '' Biol. J. Linn. Soc.'' 74(4): 533–539. (HTML abstract) It is found in lowland forest canopy and semi-open woodland, and builds a rudimentary platform nest out of twigs high in a tree or amongst vines. It lays one white egg. The short-billed pigeon is long and weighs . It is unpatterned and mainly wine-purple in colour, becoming browner on the belly and more olive-brown on the back. The tail and primary flight feathers are blackish, the bill is black, and the legs and eyes are purple-red. The female is slightly duller and browner than the male, and the juvenile bird has a greyish brown head, neck and breast, with cinnamon scaling on the head and upperparts. The short-billed pigeon has a complex, loud and high-pitched call '; this is usually uttered singly or at least with considerable pauses between calls. It is normally sighted in pairs as it forages in the tree tops for

mistletoe Mistletoe is the common name for obligate parasite, obligate parasitic plant, hemiparasitic plants in the Order (biology), order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they ...

, fruits and berries, but may also be seen on tracks and roadsides seeking grit or small

invertebrate 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 chordata, chordate s ...

s. In southern Central America, this species is replaced at higher altitudes by its close relative, the very similar ruddy pigeon, ''Patagioenas subvinacea''. They can be distinguished by the slower, more complex "song" of the short-billed pigeon.

References

* Stiles, F. Gary & Skutch, Alexander Frank (1989): ''A guide to the birds of Costa Rica''. Comistock, Ithaca.

External links

Short-billed pigeon photo
(AOCR)

VIREO * ttp://ibc.hbw.com/ibc/phtml/especie.phtml?idEspecie=1764 Short-billed pigeon videoson the Internet Bird Collection {{Taxonbar, from=Q1266517 short-billed pigeon Birds of Central America Birds of Mexico Birds of Belize Birds of Guatemala Birds of Honduras Birds of Nicaragua Birds of Costa Rica Birds of Panama short-billed pigeon short-billed pigeon