Pied Imperial Pigeon

About the pied imperial pigeon

The pied imperial pigeon is a relatively large pigeon named for its pied, or two-toned, plumage. Its body is mostly white, set off by darker wing and tail markings, and it carries a bluish bill with a narrow dark tip. The nominate form is further distinguished by plain white thighs and undertail coverts, though these sometimes carry a dark spot right at the tip.

Its closest relatives in the genus Ducula include the Torresian, yellowish, and silver-tipped imperial pigeons, and the group has been shuffled around by taxonomists for years. Those other species can be told apart by details like bill color and the pattern on their thighs and undertail coverts: the Torresian imperial pigeon has a greenish-yellow bill, the yellowish and silver-tipped imperial pigeons have bills that are bluish at the base and yellow at the tip, and both have black-spotted thighs and undertail coverts where the pied imperial pigeon's are plain. The yellowish imperial pigeon also tends to show a yellowish tinge in its plumage, and the silver-tipped imperial pigeon has silvery-grey flight feathers.

One population, found in the Moluccas and usually treated as the subspecies Ducula bicolor melanura, complicates the picture further. It resembles the Torresian imperial pigeon in its bill, thighs, and undertail coverts, but has a noticeably broader black tip to its tail. Some researchers have proposed splitting it out as its own species, others would fold it into the Torresian imperial pigeon, and still others argue it is simply a color morph of the nominate pied imperial pigeon, since both forms turn up on some of the same islands. The question remains unsettled.

Behavior and diet

Little is documented about the pied imperial pigeon's daily activity, diet, and breeding. What is well documented is how to tell it apart from its closest relatives, which is why the identifying field marks above make up the bulk of its profile.

Range and habitat

The pied imperial pigeon ranges across a wide swath of Southeast Asia, from Myanmar and Thailand through Indonesia and east to the Philippines, where it is locally known as camasu and balud-puti, and on to the Bird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea. It favors forest, woodland, mangrove, plantations, and scrub, and is found mainly on small islands and in coastal regions rather than deep inland.

Conservation status

The pied imperial pigeon is rated Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, in a 2020 assessment by BirdLife International. It remains locally common across much of its Southeast Asian range, which is the basis for that rating.