Superb Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus superbus)
About the Superb Fruit Dove
The superb fruit dove (Ptilinopus superbus), also known as the purple-crowned fruit dove (leading to easy confusion with the purple-capped fruit dove), is a medium-sized (22–24 cm long), colourful fruit-dove in the family Columbidae. It is sexually dimorphic. Males are superbly coloured with a fiery orange nape, green ears, and a purple crown. The breast is grey, and divided from the abdomen by a wide, dark blue band. Their wings are olive green covered with dark spots, and the tail is tipped with white. Females are mostly green, with a white abdomen, blue wing tips, light blue breast, and a small, dark blue spot on the back of the head. Both sexes have yellow eyes and eye-rings. Despite its colourful plumage, the superb fruit dove is well-camouflaged amongst the rainforest foliage.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 69 recordings for this species: 25 CC BY-NC-ND · 11 CC BY-NC-SA. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Banded Fruit DovePtilinopus cinctusrecording
- Black-naped Fruit DovePtilinopus melanospilusrecording
- Sula Fruit DovePtilinopus mangoliensisrecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.