Pied Imperial Pigeon

About the Pied Imperial Pigeon

The pied imperial pigeon (Ducula bicolor) is a relatively large, pied species of pigeon. It is found in forest, woodland, mangrove, plantations and scrub in Southeast Asia, ranging from Myanmar and Thailand, throughout Indonesia and east to the Philippines (where it is locally known as camasu and balud-puti) and the Bird's Head Peninsula in New Guinea. It is mainly found on small islands and in coastal regions. It remains locally common, and is therefore considered to be of least concern by BirdLife International and IUCN.

Its taxonomy is confusing and remains unsettled. It has sometimes included the Torresian, yellowish and silver-tipped imperial pigeons as subspecies. The widespread nominate subspecies of the pied imperial pigeon differs from all these by its plain white thighs and undertail coverts (though often with a dark spot at the very tip), and its narrowly dark-tipped bluish bill. For comparison, the other species' have black-spotted undertail coverts and thighs (spotting mainly near thighs in silver-tipped imperial pigeon), the bill of the Torresian imperial pigeon is greenish-yellow, and the bills of the yellowish and silver-tipped imperial pigeons are bluish... Wikipedia →