Wompoo Fruit Dove

About the Wompoo Fruit Dove

The wompoo fruit dove (Megaloprepia magnifica), also known as wompoo pigeon and "magnificent fruit dove" among others, is one of the larger fruit doves native to New Guinea and eastern Australia. The wompoo fruit dove was formally described in 1821 by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck from a specimen that had been collected on the east coast of Australia. He placed it with the doves and pigeons in the genus Columba and coined the binomial name Columba magnifica. This fruit dove was formerly placed in the genus Ptilinopus. A molecular genetic study published in 2014 found that the fruit dove genus Ptilinopus was paraphyletic. In order to create monophyletic genera, nine species were moved from Ptilinopus to Ramphiculus and two species, the scarlet-breasted fruit dove and the wompoo fruit dove, were moved from Ptilinopus to Megaloprepia. The name Megaloprepia is from Ancient Greek μεγαλοπρεπεια/megaloprepeia meaning "magnificence".

Five subspecies are recognised: M. m. puella (Lesson, RP & Garnot, 1827) – Raja Ampat Islands (northwest of New Guinea, except Gebe and Kofiau) and Bird's Head Peninsula (northwest New Guinea) M. m. poliura Salvadori, 1878 – Yapen... Wikipedia →