Victoria Crowned Pigeon
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Order: Columbiformes
Family: Columbidae
Genus: Goura Stephens, 1819

[Photo] A photograph of a Victoria Crowned Pigeon (Goura victoria) with his wings flaired and his head cocked in a defensive or aggressive posture. Photo taken at the Philadelphia Zoo. Date: Saturday, March 24, 2007. Author: Photo by and (C)2007 Derek Ramsey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ram-Man).

Copyright (C) 2007 Derek Ramsey Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

The Victoria Crowned Pigeon, Goura victoria is a large, approximately 74cm (29 in) long, bluish-grey pigeon with elegant blue lace-like crests, maroon breast and red iris. The bird may be easily recognized by the unique white tips on its crests. Both sexes are similar.

One of three superficially similar species of crowned pigeons (the others being the Western Crowned Pigeon and the Southern Crowned Pigeon), the Victoria Crowned Pigeon is distributed in the lowland and swamp forests of northern New Guinea and surrounding islands. Its diet consists mainly of fruits, figs, seeds and invertebrates. The female usually lays a single white egg.

The name commemorates the British monarch, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

Due to continuing habitat loss, being tame and easily hunted for its plumes and meat, the Victoria Crowned Pigeon is evaluated as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed in Appendix II of CITES.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Crowned_Pigeon

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