Family Pigeons, Doves (Columbidae)
Least Concern
Western Bronze-naped Pigeon (Columba iriditorques)
Taxonomy
French: Pigeon à nuque bronzée German: Glanzkopftaube Spanish: Paloma nuquibronceada
Taxonomy:
Columra [sic] iriditorques
Cassin
, 1857,St Paul’s River, Liberia
.Distribution:
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.
Descriptive notes
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... read more
Voice
Advertising call a rather complex rhythmic phrase starting with a couple of subdued hesitant hoots... read more
Habitat
Occupies lowland forests from sea-level up to 1500 m; also riparian evergreen forests, old... read more
Food and feeding
Mainly fruit but also seeds; fruits identified as having been consumed include Musanga, Eisterya and Horonga. read more
Breeding
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... read more
Movements
Resident.
Status and conservation
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... read more
Sometimes considered conspecific with C. delegorguei (but see that species) and C. malherbii; these three occasionally placed in a subgenus Turturoena. Differs from C. malberbii on account of much smaller size (at least 1); grey throat cutting cleanly to greyish-pink rest of underparts with rusty vent vs pale to mid-grey underparts throughout, and ochreish vent (3); outertail broadly tipped white with inner vanes of undertail rusty vs all grey tail with pale ochreish tinge to underside (3); broad neat golden hindcollar vs none (3); female rusty below and on head vs ochreish below with grey forecrown and green-glossed hindcrown (ns[3]). Monotypic.