Pink-necked Green Pigeon

Fascinating facts about the Pink-necked Green Pigeon

• At 25–30 cm long and 105–160 g in weight, the pink-necked green pigeon is a small bird that helps disperse fig seeds across islands, aiding forest regeneration after eruptions.
• After the new island of Anak Krakatau emerged in 1927, the pigeon colonised it within 36 years of the island’s large eruption in 1952. Its 48-minute flight to the islands is far shorter than the 60–480 minute seed-retention time in its gut, allowing it to drop fresh fig seeds far from where it ate them.
• A single breeding pair builds a flimsy twig platform only 1–10 m off the ground, lays two eggs each about 27 mm long, and shares incubation duties 17 days long, swapping day and night shifts. Their rapid, year-round breeding keeps populations steady even in bustling cities.
• In the wild, flocks can swell to 70 birds feeding together, while roosting gatherings may number in the hundreds, turning ordinary trees into noisy night-time lanterns. Such social gatherings amplify seed dispersal, spreading fruit across the landscape faster than solitary foragers.
• Despite being hunted and trapped for the cage-bird trade in parts of its range, the pigeon thrives in gardens and downtown streets as long as fruiting trees remain, earning it a ‘least concern’ status on the IUCN Red List. Its adaptability shows how wildlife can coexist with human growth when key resources are preserved.

At a glance

About the Pink-necked Green Pigeon

The pink-necked green pigeon (Treron vernans) is a medium-sized bird, 25–30 cm long and weighing 105–160 g, cloaked in glossy olive-green plumage. Males flash a striking pink neck, grey head and orange-tipped breast, while females are smaller, with a yellowish belly and a greenish crown. Their wings bear green feathers edged in yellow, forming a vivid yellow bar in flight, and the tail ends in a black band capped by chestnut uppertail coverts. These pigeons are not the typical cooing doves; the male emits a tri-syllabic whistling call that finishes with a soft coo, and they may add a rasping krrak krrak… when feeding in communal roosts. In the lowland forests, mangroves, gardens and even bustling city parks of Southeast Asia, from southern Myanmar through Thailand, Vietnam, the Malay Peninsula to the Greater Sundas, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, the Moluccas and the Philippines, this frugivore darts through the mid-canopy, clutching fine branches to pluck figs and other fruits such as Glochidion, Breynia and Vitex. It lives in open forest edges and human-modified landscapes, building flimsy twig platforms 1–10 m above ground where pairs lay two white eggs. Both parents share incubation (17 days) and chick-rearing, swapping day and night duties. Remarkably, after the 1883 Krakatoa eruption, the species was the sole obligate frugivore to colonise the new islands, aiding the return of Ficus trees before disappearing again due to predation and a tiny population.

More birds to discover

Browse Feravox