Hi Rohan,
Yes, that him, there's no question. The green colour is just right (we
thought is was like the green of a scaly breasted lorikeet ) as well as
the deep orange-red on the lower belly. The colours were marked & distinct,
just like in your photos. The bird was so small, it was like a tiny quail
in a tree. The size and shape first caught our attention, that was until we
saw the stunning colours when it perched close by.
We observed it in almost identical lighting, sitting on a dead branch. My
partner just had a look at your pictures and said that he is certain about
it.
With regards to the vegetation in the area, we found it first in the upper
foliage of small wattle tree. It then flew onto a dead branch to look at us,
a bit shyly but also curious, and became settled by the tone of voice I was
using (I think).
There's a lot of huge lilly Pillys in the surrounding area, attracting the
fig birds. I had a look around them today, but I could nly see fig birds in
the leaves. We have never seen any other fruit doves in the area.
Thanks a lot for showing me the pictures. I will still remain open with the
ID but I can't see how the pair of could be both mistaken?
On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 11:05 AM, Rohan Clarke
<>wrote:
> Hi Belinda,
> Interesting report. I photographed one on Boigu Island in Torres Strait
> back in Nov 2004. As I may well be the only (other) person to have seen an
> Orange-bellied Fruit-dove in Australia some of the things that struck me
> about my sighting were as follows:
>
> Orange-bellied Fruit-doves are small...indeed very small and noticeably
> smaller than either Rose-crowned and Superb Fruit-doves.
> In the field OBFDs appear uniformly bright green (similar to a male
> eclectus parrot) with a distinct orange belly that is sharply demarcated.
> The orange of the belly does not extend onto the lower breast. All the other
> details can be difficult to see in the field (shoulder patch, tail band and
> bare part colours) and as a consequence OBFD can be summarized as 'very
> small, uniformly bright green fruit dove with orange belly'
>
> As far as I am aware the species is not migratory but like most fruit doves
> could be expected to wander in response to fruiting trees. They occupy a
> wide range of wetter forest habitats in PNG from sea level to about 1000 m.
> My observation on Boigu Island at the top of Torres Strait (and just 5 km
> from PNG mainland) is to date the most southerly confirmed record, so a
> record from Brisbane would amount to a very substantial range extension.
>
> I've attached a pdf of the paper that was published in AFO. The images are
> poorly reproduced in the pdf. A link to better images of the same is
>
> http://www.pbase.com/wildlifeimages/orange_bellied_fruit_dove
>
> Knowing a bit about the captive bird market I reckon you can discount the
> captive origin theory for any fruit-dove other than Rose-crowned and Superb
> (and neither of those are commonly held in captivity either).
>
>
> Regards and good luck with the research.
>
> Rohan
>
>
> --
> Rohan Clarke
> www.wildlifeimages.com.au
>
>
> Quoting Belinda Cassidy <>:
>
> Regarding the ID, I've done my best to investigate some the ideas that
>> have
>> been offered.
>>
>> I suppose I'd need to talk to a breeder of fruit doves, to see if the
>> immature-to-adult moult cycle can involve the juvenile's yellow belly
>> changing to a bright red-orange, without the crown changing to purple
>> until
>> later afterwards.
>> .
>>
>> I had a really good look on the net for information- theres not much.
>> Although I found a well documented article on the wires web site about a
>> rescued male rose crowned fruit dove. At 1 year of age it still had a
>> yellow
>> belly, and some brighter patchy purple feathers on its head. Overall, it
>> had
>> the `patchy' appearance of an immature bird moulting and a noticable rose
>> crown.- no red yet on the belly, just yellow.
>>
>> The bird we spotted was not patchy- it looked like a bird in breeding
>> plumage, with bright colours. It had no crown, and the belly was noticably
>> red-orange, not yellow.
>>
>> This is the link: Any more information would be appreciated.
>>
>> http://www.wiresnr.org/doveimages.html
>>
>> Steven, from what you're saying it's not legal to breed exotic fruit
>> pigeons
>> in Australia? What about illegal breeding?
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