From Opus

Patagioenas subvinacea

Photo by Michael W
Milpe Bird Sanctuary, NW Ecuador.

[edit] Identification

28 cm. Wine-purple in colour, becoming more rufous on the back. dark brown tail and primary flight feathers, black bill, and the legs are purple-red. Iris typically reddish. Amazonian populations sometimes with yellowish irides, but always appear dark from any distance due to their relatively distinct red eye-ring. The female is slightly duller and browner than the male, and the juvenile bird has a greyish brown head, neck and breast, with cinnamon or rufous scaling on the head and upperparts.

[edit] Distribution

Costa Rica through Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and central Brazil and also Venezuela and the Guianas.

[edit] Taxonomy

Six subspecies are recognized¹: subvinacea, zuliae, berlepschi, peninsularis, purpureotincta, and bogotensis. Restall³ mentions that the last subspecies (bogotensis) is treated as a subspecies of Plumbeous Pigeon by some authors.
Ruddy Pigeon was in the past placed in genus Columba.

[edit] Habitat

Forests and semi-open woodland. In Central America in highlands² (where the similar Short-billed Pigeon is found in lowlands); in South America mostly in lowlands³.

[edit] Behaviour

It builds a platform nest out of twigs 5 m high in a small tree, and lays 1 white egg.

The diet includes mistletoe, fruits and berries.

[edit] References

1. Clements, James F. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2007. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801445019
2. Ridgely & Gwynne 1989. Birds of Panama. Princeton Paperbacks. ISBN 0691025126
3. Restall et al. 2006. Birds of Northern South America. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300124156

[edit] External Links