Pheasant Pigeon Otidiphaps nobilis Scientific name definitions

The Pheasant Pigeon, which might be more appropriately named the Pheasant-like Pigeon, is the sole representative of the genus Otidiphaps and is endemic to New Guinea, where it occurs (principally in hilly, especially montane, regions) across much of the mainland, as well as on some of the western islands and a single island in the D’Entrecasteaux Archipelago, off southeastern Papua New Guinea. All of the major populations shun the level-ground lowlands, preferring hilly areas even at lower elevations, and are essentially dependent upon the presence of primary forest; generally found up to 1,900 m, in the eastern half of New Guinea, locally the species reaches as high as 2,600 m.

Otidiphaps is a strong-legged, heavy-bodied species, with relatively small and short wings, a slender neck, comparatively small head, and a remarkable tent-like blackish tail, which comprises 20‒22 feathers (many more than any other Columbidae) and may be jerked up and down, in the manner of some pheasants. The head, neck, underparts, tail, and rump are predominantly dark, albeit glossed shades of blue, green, and even purple, contrasting with the principally chestnut-rufous mantle and wings. The species’ internal morphology is also remarkable in several respects, including a greatly reduced furcula (which might indicate limited powers of flight), whilst Otidiphaps is apparently the only pigeon in which the male provides the female with food to provision the single young during its first week of life (although it bears mention that this facet of the breeding system is, like most data for this species, based on studies of captive birds).

Four subspecies of Pheasant Pigeon are recognized (two of them confined to New Guinea satellite islands), all of them originally described as species, and the generally fairly well-marked plumage differences between the different populations recently led to one global checklist of birds suggesting that they should be treated at species level again. Two of the subspecies are of conservation concern, that (aruensis) on the Aru Islands, off Indonesian New Guinea, and insularis, which is endemic to Fergusson Island in the extreme east of the range and is currently listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List; the latter went unseen between its original collection, in 1882 and then in 1896, and a series of camera-trap images obtained in 2022, during an expedition mounted specifically to rediscover it. Perhaps similarly, aruensis has not been documented in at least decades, likely due to infrequent surveys on the Aru Islands, where it is endemic.