Southern Crowned Pigeons
(Columbidae - Please see also Doves)
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The Southern Crowned Pigeon, Goura scheepmakeri is a large pigeon confined to Southern lowland forests of New Guinea. It has a bluish-grey plumage with elaborate blue lacy crests, red iris and very deep maroon breast.
There are two subspecies of the Southern Crowned Pigeon, differentiated by their shoulder and belly colorations. Goura scheepmakeri sclateri of Southwest New Guinea with maroon shoulders and blue grey belly, and the nominate race Goura scheepmakeri scheepmakeri of Southeast New Guinea with blue grey shoulders and maroon below.
This species was first discovered new to science by Otto Finsch who found a live bird received from the dealer C. Scheepmaker in Amsterdam Zoo and named it after him.
Being tame and heavily hunted for its meat and plumes, the Southern Crowned Pigeon is evaluated as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed in Appendix II of CITES.
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