Description
Lifespan: 4-5 years
The medium-sized pink-necked green pigeon is a bird. The species’s plumage is sexually dimorphic. The male has an orange lower breast and an upper breast with a pinkish neck. The wings are green with black primaries and yellow border on the tertiaries, creating an orange strip across the wing when flying. The back is olive green. The tail is grey with a black band at the end and chestnut uppertail coverts. The belly is yellowish with grey flanks. The female is similar to the male in most respects except that she is smaller overall and has a yellowish belly, throat, and face as well as a greenish crown and rear of the neck. The bill is white, pale blue green, or grey, while the legs are pink or reddish.
Origin/ Habitat
From southern Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam south through the Malay Peninsula and across the Greater Sundas (and their surrounding islands), Bali, Lombok, and Sumbawa, as well as far east as the Moluccas and the Philippines, the pink-necked green pigeon’s range is the largest. It inhabits a range of environments, including coastal mangroves, secondary forests, and main and edge forests. It prefers more open settings, and the edges are usually where it can be found in close proximity to denser woodland.
In human-dominated areas like gardens, plantations, and farming, it is also easily found. It can be found up to 300 m (980 ft) in the Philippines, 750 m (2,460 ft) in Borneo, and 1,200 m (3,900 ft) in Sulawesi, but it is more prevalent in lowlands and close to the ocean. The pink-necked pigeon was discovered on the first bird survey of these remnants after the main island of Krakatoa was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1883, leaving a number of smaller islands.
When the survey was done in 1908, the pigeon was the only recognized obligate frugivorous (an animal that eats predominantly fruit as opposed to other foods or occasionally) on the islands. Within 36 years of the new island experiencing a significant eruption in 1952, it was able to colonise Anak Krakatau, a volcano that rose from the sea from the crater in 1927.
Behavior
The pink-necked green pigeon eats a variety of fruits, but its favourite is figs (Ficus). Other trees, such as Glochidion, Melastoma, Breynia, Macaranga, Vitex, Muntingia, Oncosperma, and Bridelia, also provide fruit that is consumed. Shoots, buds, and seeds are also consumed, though much less frequently and frequently by a significant margin. In one investigation of the Sulawesi frugivores, 55 observations of this species feeding were made, and every single one had it consuming fruit, primarily figs. The species mostly eats in the middle of the forest’s canopy; it only infrequently feeds on the ground or in the understory. When holding to delicate branches to reach the fruits at the end, it is said to be nimble.
The gizzard, which is muscular and includes grit like other members of the genus Treron, is used to crush and digest fruit seeds. It has been discovered through research on closely related species that not all individuals possess grit, and it is most likely the same for this species. It is sociable, feeding in small groups or quite big flocks of up to 70 birds if there is a sufficient source of food. The species can form roosting flocks of hundreds of birds and also roosts communally.
As Pet
The pink-necked green pigeon needs a big aviary system to replicate their natural habitat because they are tropical birds. Since most individuals aren’t willing to plant multiple fruit trees in their backyards, their enclosure will need to be large enough to accommodate them. They also have a different diet than domestic pigeons, which primarily consume seeds and grains and can be challenging to imitate in captivity. In the absence of their favoured fruit, they will consume seeds, buds, and berries. Watching these magnificent birds in their natural habitat, where they are happiest, is the greatest way to appreciate them.
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