Animalia Life

Ptilinopus magnificus
SUBFAMILY
Treroninae
TAXONOMY
Columba magnifica Temminck, 1821, New South Wales. Eight subspecies.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Magnificent fruit dove, purple-bellied fruit dove; French: Ptilope magnifique; German: Purpurbrust- Fruchttaube; Spanish: Tilopo Magnifico.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Large, length up to 20 in (50 cm), up to 1.1 lb (500 g). Ashgray head, green upperparts with yellow spots on wingcoverts, throat and breast deep purple, long tail (up to 7.1 in [18 cm]).
DISTRIBUTION
Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia.
HABITAT
Rainforest and secondary forest.
BEHAVIOR
No display flight. When advertising the breast is inflated and the bill is pressed against the upper breast pointing downwards; at each coo the body is inclined very slightly forward; the male bows from an upright posture with the neck slightly inflated forward slowly to about 20° from the horizontal, the bill pressed against the upper breast and the tail raised only slightly from its starting position uttering a low coo.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Various fruits of figs, laurels, and areca palms.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
The single-egg clutch can be seen through the nest. Incubation lasts 21 days. If a brooding bird is disturbed it falls vertically from the nest and flies away close to the ground.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened, but nesting success in Papua New Guinea very low.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
None known.

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