Nilgiri Wood Pigeon (Columba elphinstonii)
About the Nilgiri Wood Pigeon
The Nilgiri wood pigeon (Columba elphinstonii) is a large pigeon found in the moist deciduous forests and sholas of the Western Ghats in southwestern India. They are mainly frugivorous and forage in the canopy of dense hill forests. They are best identified in the field by their large size, dark colours and the distinctive checkerboard pattern on their nape. This pigeon appears dark grey and a black and white patterned patch made of white tipped stiff feathers on the back of the neck is distinctive. The mantle is chestnut. The male has a paler grey crown while the female has a darker grey crown with a pale throat. The most confusable other species is the mountain imperial pigeon but that species has paler underwing coverts. The feet and the base of the bill are red.
A real field recording of the Nilgiri Wood Pigeon. Press play and focus on the rhythm and pitch of each phrase.
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Our streaming copies are mirrored from the original xeno-canto file and transcoded to 96 kbps mono — a modification, so we note it here; the licence for each recording is named in its credit below.
1 recording on this page · licensed CC BY-SA ×1 · mirrored on this server, free for commercial reuse · recorded in India · xeno-canto lists 9 recordings for this species in total.
Similar species
- Afep PigeonColumba unicinctaprofile
- African Olive PigeonColumba arquatrixprofile
- Andaman Wood PigeonColumba palumboidesprofile
- Ashy Wood PigeonColumba pulchricollisprofile
- Bolle's PigeonColumba bolliiprofile
- Common Wood PigeonColumba palumbusrecording
Species grouped by shared genus, family and range.