Victoria crowned pigeon Goura victoria
One of the world’s largest pigeons.
These pigeons are native to New Guinea, where they live in the lowlands and swamp forests. They spend most of their time scavenging for food on the ground.
The Victoria crowned pigeon in a nutshell
- eats
- fruits, seeds and berries
- inhabits
- New Guinea
- excels at
- making milk
Eye-catching crown
The Victoria crowned pigeon owes its name to its distinctive crest. The pigeon is also named after the British monarch, Queen Victoria, who was ruling at the time the pigeon was discovered.
Dancing with widespread wings
The Victoria crowned pigeon is a social bird, moving around on the forest floor in flocks of two to 10. These pigeons are monogamous by nature. The male attempts to impress the female by dancing with his wings extended, bowing his head and displaying his flared tail. The hen lays one egg, which the pair incubate together.
Pigeon’s milk
One extraordinary characteristic of pigeons is that they produce a kind of milk to feed their young. Both the cock (the male) and the hen (the female) produce this milk in their crop, an organ in the neck. The youngster lives exclusively on this milk for the first few days after hatching.
Endangered pigeon
The Victoria crowned pigeon is one of the largest living pigeon species. Its larger cousin was the dodo, which weighed around fourteen kilos. Because Victoria crowned pigeons are so large, they are a favourite source of food among the indigenous people of New Guinea. This is part of the reason they have been assigned ‘near threatened’ status.
