Sclater's crowned pigeon explained

Sclater's crowned pigeon (Goura sclaterii) is a large, terrestrial pigeon confined to the southern lowland forests of New Guinea. This pigeon was previously considered as conspecific with Scheepmaker's crowned pigeon (Goura scheepmakeri) with the English name "southern crowned pigeon".^[1]

Description

It has a bluish-grey plumage with elaborate blue lacy crests, red iris and very deep maroon breast. Both sexes have a similar appearance. It is in length and weighs .^[2]

Taxonomy

Sclater's crowned pigeon was originally described by the Italian zoologist Tommaso Salvadori in 1876. He introduced the current binomial name Goura sclaterii. The specific epithet sclaterii was chosen to honour the English ornithologist Philip Sclater (1829–1913).^[3] A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2018 found that Sclater's crowned pigeon was most closely related to the western crowned pigeon (Goura cristata).^[4]

Conservation

Being tame and heavily hunted for its meat and plumes, Sclater's crowned pigeon is evaluated as near threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed in Appendix II of CITES.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Gill . Frank . Frank Gill (ornithologist) . Donsker . David . 2017 . Pigeons . World Bird List Version 8.1 . International Ornithologists' Union . 28 January 2018 .
2. Web site: del Hoyo . J. . Collar . N. . Kirwan . G.M. . Garcia . E.F.J. . 2018 . Sclater's Crowned-pigeon (Goura sclaterii) . del Hoyo . J. . Elliott . A. . Sargatal . J. . Christie . D.A. . de Juana . E. . Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive . Lynx Edicions . 28 January 2018 . subscription .
3. Salvadori . Tommaso . Tommaso Salvadori . 1876 . Catalogo di una seconda collezione di uccelli raccolti dal Sig. L. M. D'Albertis nell'Isola Yule e sulla vicina costa della Nuova Guinea e di una piccola collezione della regione bagnata dal Fiume Fly . Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova . 9 . 7-49 [45-47] . it, la .
4. Bruxaux . J. . Gabrielli . M. . Ashari . H. . Prŷs-Jones . R. . Joseph . L. . Milá . B. . Besnard . G. . Thébaud . C. . 2018 . Recovering the evolutionary history of crowned pigeons (Columbidae: Goura): Implications for the biogeography and conservation of New Guinean lowland birds . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . 120 . 248–258 . 10.1016/j.ympev.2017.11.022 .