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| Pale-capped Pigeon Columba punicea
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| Photographer : | © Panchami Manoo Ukil |
| Location : | Regional Plant Resource Centre campus (RPRC), Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India |
| Date : |
23 August 2013 |
| English synonyms: | Purple Pigeon, Purple Wood-Pigeon, Pale-capped Wood Pigeon, Purple Wood Pigeon, Pale Capped Pigeon |
| Bird Family : | Columbidae - Pigeons & Doves |
| Bird Group : | COLUMBIFORMES |
| Red Data Status : | Vulnerable |
| Remarks : | A couple of months back I was informed by Mr. Ramki
Sreenivasan of the presence of the rare Pale-capped Pigeons Columba
punicea (IUCN: Vulnerable) in Bhubaneswar. On the 18th of August during one
of our regular bird walks, we sighted 3 birds on the high canopy of a tree
in the RPRC campus. It took me a while to realise that these were indeed
the rare birds that I had been waiting to see. The next morning a fellow
birder and I saw 12 individuals, male and female, again on the same tree.
It was cloudy with a mild drizzle and the birds sat and preened all
through. They flew towards the adjoining jungles at about 8 am.
The tree on which the Pale-capped Pigeons are mostly perched on the high
canopy is the Glircidia sepium, a medium sized leguminous tree belonging to
the family Fabaceae. It is about 10-12 metres high.
Occasionaly some of the birds were observed to come down to a fruiting
tree, the Litsea glutinosa (Medh in hindi) and were seen feeding on the
tiny black berries of the tree.
These birds were observed to be quite bold, often perching on the
leafless branches of a nearby tree at aproximately 10 to 12 feet away from
human movement, even flying in a slow flight about 10 to 15 feet above us.
The birds were seen by me at the abovementioned spot from 18th August 2013
to 22nd August 2013. - PMU |
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