Crested Pigeon Ocyphaps lophotes
Centennial Park, Sydney, Australia. March 2008

The beautiful Crested Pigeon is endemic to Australia and is common in lightly wooded grasslands, watercourses, pastoral areas, sports grounds/golf courses and parks in both rural and urban areas throughout most of the mainland. It is usually found in the vicinity of water, as it has to drink every day, and is absent from the denser forests. A slim, ‘long-looking’ pigeon with a conspicuous thin black crest most of the plumage is grey-brown, becoming more pink on the underparts. If startled, this species takes to the air with a characteristic whistling flight, and glides with down turned wings. The whistling sound is produced by the air passing over a modified primary feather on the wing. Upon landing, the pigeon swings its tail high in the air.

There are only two Australian pigeon species that possess an erect crest. The Spinifex Pigeon Geophaps plumifera is markedly smaller (20 - 24 cm) than the Crested Pigeon (30 - 35 cm), but occupies a very different habitat anyway being found in stony areas with low woodlands and spinifex grasses.

 

 

 

Photographs copyright Charlie Moores