Common Emerald Dove

The common emerald dove is a stocky, medium-sized pigeon, 23–27cm long, with a bright emerald-green back and wings. The flight feathers and tail are blackish, and broad black and white bars on the lower back show in flight. The head and underparts are dark wine-pink fading to grey on the lower belly, the bill is bright red and the legs rufous. Males have a grey crown and a white shoulder patch; females are browner with a grey shoulder mark. It is the state bird of Tamil Nadu (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives in tropical forest and similar dense, wet woodland, farms and mangroves, alone, in pairs or in small groups. It searches the ground for fallen fruit and seeds and spends little time in trees except to roost. Its flight is fast and often low between patches of forest, though a disturbed bird often simply walks away. The call is a low, soft series of six or seven rising coos. It lays two cream eggs in a flimsy stick nest up to five metres up. In India it is a resident forest bird; SoIB 2023 finds its trends uncertain and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).