Wompoo Fruit Dove
Ptilinopus magnificus· 鸠鸽科(2 photos)
Locations:
Wompoo Fruit Dove
35–50 cm.Magnificent big pigeon, often hard to see in foliage until it moves: head and neck grey; upperparts green, with curving yellow line across wing coverts; breast plum–purple, cut off by rich yellow underparts; tail green above, grey below. Singles to companies at ripening fruit: feeds high in canopy or low, often first revealed by call or falling fruit. Flight swift, direct, exposing yellow wing linings.
- Other Names
- Bubbly Jock, or Mary; Green or King Pigeon; Magnificent Fruit-Dove; Wompoo Fruit-Pigeon or Pigeon.
- Voice
- typical phrase is a deep, gruff, bubbling ‘wollack-a-woo’, ‘bok-bok-oo’, or quieter ‘wompoo’. (Rudely paraphrased, ‘bollocks are blue’.) Shorter sharp ‘pack pack’ sounds when feeding.
- Habitat
- rainforests, monsoon forests; adjacent eucalypt forest; fruiting trees on scrubby creeks or in open country.
- Breeding
- Oct.–Feb.
- Nest
- very flimsy; usually on slim, leafy, horizontal branch, Acacia, or palm frond, 2–10 m high in thick scrub, often over stream.
- Eggs
- 1; largish, white, often visible through nest.
- Range & Status
- coastal e. Aust. and forested coastal islands: resident from C. York (Q) to c. Manning R. region (NSW), summer visitor to rainforests of Hunter R. region, vagrant s. to Sydney; formerly regular, perhaps resident in Illawarra; mostly on and e. of Divide. Races in ne. Q and PNG smaller. Fairly common in Q, scarcer in NSW. Sedentary, with nomadic feeding movements. Also PNG, adjacent islands; crosses Torres Strait irregularly.
- Distribution key to races
- 1. Ptilinopus magnificus magnificus 2. Ptilinopus magnificus assimilis 3. Ptilinopus magnificus keri
