G'day Greg,
I can see this thread is going to trickle a long for ever without a
definitive statement. Pied Imperial Pigeons are kept by lots of
aviculturalists who have a particular interest in native pigeons. I have
seen them in Victorian private collections and I can only imagine that with
the more appropriate climate in NSW they would be more popular there. So the
answer is they are in private collections, including suburban Sydney. If
people want to put this bird on their own private lists they should do so,
but It would be impossible to rule out an escapee just as it would be
impossible to rule out a genuine vagrant, so there is never going to be an
answer for this individual. Aviary escapees as a rule are very susceptible
to being knocked off by birds of prey, but as we can see in every state
there are plenty of survivors, Barbary Doves in Adelaide is a recently
discussed example.
Cheers Jeff.
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Greg & Val Clancy
Sent: Monday, 20 April 2009 3:02 PM
To: Jon Irvine; 'Alan McBride'
Cc:
Subject: Pied Imperial Pigeon
The point of my email was to get people to think about the possibility that
the bird was an escapee. If that possibility could be ruled out that would
be good but it seems that the species is kept at a number of NSW
establishments. Some years ago a Great Bowerbird was photographed at Iluka,
north coast NSW. Due to the long distance from its normal range and the
fact that 'soft bills' are now commonly kept by aviculturists it was
considered an escapee. The normal southern limit of the Pied Imperial
Pigeon is similar to that of the Great Bowerbird. Admittedly the Pigeon is
a more mobile species than the Bowerbird.
Presumably these issues will be fully considered by the NSW Records
Appraisal Committee when a submission is made. I hope that someone is
preparing one.
Regards
Greg Clancy
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