Scheepmaker's crowned pigeon

Scheepmaker's crowned pigeon (Goura scheepmakeri) is a large, terrestrial pigeon confined to the lowland forests of south eastern New Guinea. It has a bluish-grey plumage with elaborate blue lacy crests, red iris and very deep maroon breast. Both sexes have a similar appearance. It is on average 70 cm (28 in) long and weighs 2,250 grams (5 lbs).[2]

Scheepmaker's crowned pigeon
Illustration by Otto Finsch (1876)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Columbiformes
Family: Columbidae
Genus: Goura
Species:
G. scheepmakeri
Binomial name
Goura scheepmakeri
Finsch, 1876

Taxonomy

This species was first described by the German zoologist Otto Finsch who received a live bird from the dealer C. Scheepmaker in Amsterdam Zoo and named it after him.[3] Scheepmaker's crowned pigeon was previously considered as conspecific with Sclater's crowned pigeon (Goura sclaterii) with the English name southern crowned-pigeon.[4] A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2018 found that Scheepmaker's crowned pigeon was most closely related to the Victoria crowned pigeon (Goura victoria).[5]

Being tame and heavily hunted for its meat and plumes, Scheepmaker's crowned pigeon is evaluated as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed in Appendix II of CITES.

References
  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Goura scheepmakeri". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  2. "A Guide to the Pigeons and Doves of the World" by David Gibbs, Eustace Barnes & John Cox. Yale University Press (2001), ISBN 0-300-07886-2.
  3. Finsch, Otto (1875). "On a new species of crown-pigeon". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London: 631–633.
  4. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2017). "Pigeons". World Bird List Version 8.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  5. Bruxaux, J.; Gabrielli, M.; Ashari, H.; Prŷs-Jones, R.; Joseph, L.; Milá, B.; Besnard, G.; Thébaud, C. (2018). "Recovering the evolutionary history of crowned pigeons (Columbidae: Goura): Implications for the biogeography and conservation of New Guinean lowland birds". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 120: 248–258. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2017.11.022.
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