Bronze-naped Pigeon Columba iriditorques Scientific name definitions

25 cm; male 130 g, female 122 g. Head bluish grey, throat paler, iridescent pink or green on crown and nape; hindneck and upper mantle iridescent copper-bronze, green or pink; upperparts slaty with iridescent golden green, green or violet-blue fringes on mantle and scapulars; central rectrices slate with obscure dark grey tips; outer rectrices with dark chestnut inner webs and slaty outer webs with broad buff terminal bands; underside of tail chestnut with buff tips; breast and underparts dark mauve-pink, wings and uppertail-coverts black and greyish, slightly iridescent; iris pink, pink-red, grey, greenish yellow or blue; orbital skin reddish; bill grey, white-tipped, cere red or purplish black; legs pink or light red. Female has face suffused with brown, crown and nape bronzy brown, hindneck iridescent pink or green; breast and underparts rufous with fine grey or grey and rufous vermiculations; vent and undertail-coverts bright chestnut; iris sometimes greenish yellow.

Sierra Leone and SE Guinea through S Nigeria and Gabon to NW Angola, occupying entire Congo Basin from S Cameroon and W Congo E to SW Uganda and S to NW Zambia.

Occupies lowland forests from sea-level up to 1500 m; also riparian evergreen forests, old secondary growth, forested slopes, gallery forest and dense thickets away from water; in Sierra Leone, even comes into gardens. Usually in canopy but can occur in low vegetation and on the forest floor. Usually solitary but also seen in pairs and groups of 3–4 birds.

Resident.

Mainly fruit but also seeds; fruits identified as having been consumed include Musanga, Eisterya and Horonga.

Advertising call a rather complex rhythmic phrase starting with a couple of subdued hesitant hoots, followed by four louder and emphasized hoots, and ending with one or two lower-pitched fading hoots: “uwhuu..uwhuu..OOOh..OOOh..OOOh...OOOh...uh..uh”. Introductory notes sometimes omitted. Birds at extreme E of range (SW Uganda) seemingly give a longer series of fading notes and lack the clear difference between emphasized and fading notes, thus sounding closer to C. delegorguei.

Mar, Apr, Jul and Sept in Liberia; Dec–Mar in Zaire; Oct in Zambia. A nest discovered in Zambia was a flimsy platform in a dense thicket placed 1–2 m above ground. It contained 1 pale cream egg.

Not globally threatened. Reported as uncommon in Cameroon and the Congo Basin; however, species may perhaps be easily overlooked, as it usually keeps well hidden in the canopy; not uncommon in Liberia, Nigeria and Rwanda; in Sierra Leone, common in lowland forests but less so in other habitats. CITES III in Ghana.