The western bronze-naped pigeon (''Columba iriditorques'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family

Columbidae Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

, part of the

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

Turturoena ''Turturoena'', commonly called bronze-naped pigeon, is a pigeon subgenus comprising three species: the eastern bronze-naped pigeon, the western bronze-naped pigeon The western bronze-naped pigeon (''Columba iriditorques'') is a species of b ...

''. A medium sized bird, it has a pale, broad terminal tail band which is noticeable on landing. It is found in most countries of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. The

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

classifies it as a species of

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

Taxonomy

The species was first described in 1856 by the American

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

John Cassin John Cassin (September 6, 1813 – January 10, 1869) was an American ornithologist from Pennsylvania. He worked as curator and Vice President at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences and focused on the systemic classification of the Acade ...

. It is occasionally considered

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...

(belonging to the same species) with the eastern bronze-naped pigeon (''

Columba delegorguei The eastern bronze-naped pigeon (''Columba delegorguei'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is found in Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is part of the ''Turt ...

'') and the island bronze-naped pigeon (''

Columba malherbii The island bronze-naped pigeon (''Columba malherbii''), also known as the São Tomé bronze-naped pigeon, is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemic to the Gulf of Guinea islands of Annobón (Equatorial Guinea), São Tomé and P ...

''), and the three species are sometimes placed in the subgenus ''

''.

Description

A medium sized bird, the western bronze-naped pigeon measures about in length. It has a pale, broad terminal tail band which is noticeable on landing. The adult male weighs about , and has dark bluish grey head, and dark vinous belly and breast. The adult female weighs about , and has cinnamon-reddish brown

crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

, and greyish chestnut

underparts Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position prov ...

Distribution and habitat

It is widespread across the African tropical rainforest.

Status and conservation

Since 1988, the western bronze-naped pigeon has been rated as a species of

on the

. This is because it has a large range, and because its population is stable and thought not to have declined by 30% over ten years or three generations. Although the population size has not been measured, it is thought to be more than the threshold required to warrant it a vulnerable rating. There is no evidence of any population decline of the species, or substantial threat to it.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q980523

western bronze-naped pigeon The western bronze-naped pigeon (''Columba iriditorques'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae, part of the subgenus ''Turturoena''. A medium sized bird, it has a pale, broad terminal tail band which is noticeable on landing. It is fou ...

Birds of the African tropical rainforest

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot