H.J. Ruiz – Avian101

Victoria Crowned Pigeon – Spec. Name: Goura victoria

Victoria Crowned Pigeon

This is a large, bluish-grey pigeon with elegant blue lace-like crests, maroon breast and red iris. The bird may be easily recognized by the unique white tips on its crests. Both sexes are similar. It is on average 74 cm (29 in) long and weighs 2,384 grams (5.3 lbs). It is marginally larger than the other crowned pigeons on average and likely the largest species of pigeon of earth.

One of three superficially similar species of crowned pigeons (the others being the Western Crowned Pigeon and the Southern Crowned Pigeon), the Victoria Crowned Pigeon is distributed in the lowland and swamp forests of northern New Guinea and surrounding islands. Its diet consists mainly of fruits, figs, seeds and invertebrates. The female usually lays a single white egg.

The name commemorates the British monarch, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

There are two subspecies of the Victoria Crowned Pigeon, Goura victoria victoria, the nominate race is the smaller of the two supspecies and can be found in Yapen, Biak & Supiori. Goura victoria beccarii is found on the mainland of New Guinea

Due to continuing habitat loss, being tame and easily hunted for its plumes and meat, the Victoria Crowned Pigeon is evaluated as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

All photographs are © H.J. Ruiz – Avian101

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details.