The Coolest Things You Need To Know!

• The Pink-Headed Fruit Dove’s name is derived from obvious reasons, however, these brightly coloured birds are also known as the Pink-Necked Fruit Dove or the Temminck’s Fruit Pigeon
• This amazing bird is endemic to Indonesia (this means they are only found on the Indonesian islands) and more specifically occurs in the mountain forests of Sumatra, Java and Bali
• While the Pink-Headed Fruit Dove typically resides alone or in pairs, they have been known to gather in groups as large as 17 individuals (* See footnote for source) – I bet that is an amazing site

The Pink-Headed Fruit Dove is Full of Colours

Like most bird species the male Pink-Headed Fruit Dove is typically the brightly coloured one. And by brightly coloured I mean a pink/purple head and throat mixed in with some green, greys and yellow. Meanwhile the female is a duller colour and a very faint chest band but at least they are more colourful than the juvenile Pink-Headed Fruit Doves as the young are generally the least colourful. These bright colours obviously play a role in mate selection but believe it or not they also help camouflage the dove. You see, the upper canopy of their mountainous home contains numerous colourful flowers and fruits, which means a bring pink head is actually a good thing. It is funny, you wear a pink shirt to school and everyone will notice but you paint your head and neck pink and you blend right in…go figure!

Stable Population…For Now

I found it quite surprising that the population of the Pink-Necked Fruit Dove was actually stable (maybe in slight decline) and is listed as least concern on the IUCN List. Why I am surprised by this? Well, because the entire population of this bird is restricted to about 12,000 square kilometres and that number is quickly being reduced due to deforestation. I feel it is only a matter of time before this colourful bird gets listed as endangered due to the increase in habitat destruction. The only saving grace for this bird is their habitat is located about 2000 metres above sea level so it isn’t exactly easy to get to, so let’s hope this dissuades any would-be loggers and preserves this population in the process.

* Information obtained from http://www.vincentnijman.org/files/a32_vanbalennijman_ptilinopus_birdconservintern_20.pdf