Crested Pigeon
Ocyphaps lophotes· 鸠鸽科(1 photos)
Crested Pigeon
30-34 cm. Our only grey pigeon with slender black crest. Wings wavily barred black; bronzed green/purple wingpatch edged white; tail longish, dark grey, tipped white. Juvenile: duller, no bronze on wing. Singles, pairs, open flocks; feeds quietly on ground, runs with crest erect, perches on dead trees, fences, overhead wires. Flight swift; bursts of whistling wingbeats with flat-winged, tilting glides; tips tail up on alighting. Display flight like Spotted Turtle-Dove.
- Other name
- 'Topknot'.
- Similar Species
- Spinifex Pigeon.
- Voice
- 'whoop!', repeated; singly in alarm.
- Habitat
- pastoral and farming lands, watercourses, stubble fields, croplands, weed-grown paddocks, roadsides, homestead gardens, farmyards, sports-grounds, railyards, beaches, suburban golf courses, urban areas.
- Breeding
- mostly spring-summer, but almost any month.
- Nest
- frail platform of twigs; in shrub or tree, up to 5 m.
- Eggs
- 2; oval, white, glossy.
- Range & Status
- originally a dweller of inland and w. Aust. Has expanded coastwards with settlement: now widespread and common in coastal e. Aust. s. to far s. coast NSW; becoming established in outer se. suburbs of Melbourne, but still mostly absent from s. Vic.. Patchy, absent from driest deserts, n. C. York Pen. (Q), Top End (NT); Kimberley (WA). Sedentary.
- Distribution key to races
- 1. Ocyphaps lophotes whitlocki 2. Ocyphaps lophotes lophotes
