Birdfinding.info ⇒ Locally common and generally easy to find across most of its range. In southern Florida, readily found from South Miami to Key West, and in mangroves and hardwood hammocks of Everglades National Park. An increasingly common urban resident of Kendall and adjacent Miami neighborhoods.
White-crowned Pigeon
Patagioenas leucocephala
Endemic to the West Indies and other Caribbean islands and coasts. Highly associated with mangroves, especially for breeding. Forages in various forest and semiopen habitats, including settled areas and interior montane forests of the Greater Antilles.
Resident throughout most of the West Indies from Grand Bahama to Guadeloupe; southern Florida; and along the eastern Yucatán Peninsula from Holbox south throughout the Belizean cays, to the Honduran Bay Islands.
In the southwestern Caribbean, outpost populations exist on Isla Providencia and San Andrés, the Nicaraguan Corn Islands, and nearshore islands of Panama and Colombia.
Occurs locally on the continental mainland, usually within a few miles of the coast, mainly in southern Florida, eastern Mexico (Quintana Roo), Belize, northern Honduras, and western Panama (Bocas del Toro).
A casual vagrant to the Lesser Antilles south of Guadeloupe. Accidental wanderers sometimes turn up at coastal locations anywhere from Texas to Venezuela.
Identification
Adult is unmistakable: dark gray with a snow-white crown. The bill is bicolored, with a pink base and horn-colored tip. A “scaly” patch of feathers on the back and sides of the neck shines with greenish or bronzy iridescence.
Immatures are mostly brownish, and subadults go through intermediate stages of coloration.
White-crowned Pigeon. (Antigua; June 6, 2009.) © Mikko Pyhälä
White-crowned Pigeon. (Puerto Rico; March 21, 2017.) © Frédéric Pelsy
White-crowned Pigeon, adult, likely brown from dust-bathing. (Negril, Jamaica; February 7, 2018.) © Anthony Van Schoor
White-crowned Pigeon, juvenile—note bicolored bill. (Cozumel, Mexico; December 31, 2016.) © Luke Berg
White-crowned Pigeon, showing “scaly,” iridescent feathers on the neck. (Cayo Coco, Cuba; March 23, 2008.) © William Price
White-crowned Pigeon. (Antigua; April 12, 2013.) © Greg Griffith
White-crowned Pigeon, molting into adult plumage. (Great Inagua, Bahamas; November 22, 2017.) © Dubi Shapiro
Voice. Typical song rendered as Who took two? Most of its vocalizations have a quavering, purring quality.
Notes
Monotypic species.
IUCN Red List Status: Near Threatened.
Florida Breeding Bird Survey Map: White-crowned Pigeon.
References
Alderfer, J., and J.L. Dunn. 2014. National Geographic Complete Birds of North America (Second Edition). National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.
Ascanio, D., G.A. Rodriguez, and R. Restall. 2017. Birds of Venezuela. Christopher Helm, London.
Baptista, L.F., P.W. Trail, H.M. Horblit, P. Boesman, and C.J. Sharpe. 2018. White-crowned Pigeon (Patagioenas leucocephala). In Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D.A. Christie, and E. de Juana, eds.). Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. https://www.hbw.com/node/54126. (Accessed December 22, 2018.)
BirdLife International. 2016. Patagioenas leucocephala. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22690229A95214927. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22690229A95214927.en. (Accessed December 22, 2018.)
eBird. 2018. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, N.Y. http://www.ebird.org. (Accessed December 22, 2018.)
Fagan, J., and O. Komar. 2016. Peterson Field Guide to the Birds of Northern Central America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York.
Garrigues, R., and R. Dean. 2014. The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide (Second Edition). Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y.
Gibbs, D., E. Barnes, and J. Cox. 2001. Pigeons and Doves: A Guide to the Pigeons and Doves of the World. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.
Haynes-Sutton, A., A. Downer, R. Sutton, and Y.-J. Rey-Millet. 2009. A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Jamaica. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Howell, S.N.G., and S. Webb. 1995. A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Latta, S., C. Rimmer, A. Keith, J. Wiley, H. Raffaele, K. McFarland, and E. Fernandez. 2006. Birds of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
McMullan, M., and T. Donegan. 2014, Field Guide to the Birds of Colombia (Second Edition). Fundación Proaves de Colombia, Bogotá.
Raffaele, H., J. Wiley, O. Garrido, A. Keith, and J. Raffaele. 1998. A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Ridgely, R.S., and J.A. Gwynne. 1989. A Guide to the Birds of Panama (Second Edition). Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.