If you live in a town or a city, you may be surrounded by pigeons daily. Because we see so many pigeons, it might make you wonder how pigeons could be critically endangered.
There are about 250 species of true pigeons and five that are critically endangered. These pigeons are rare due to poaching, habitat destruction, logging, and deforestation.
If you want to know more about the five species of critically endangered pigeons, please read on.
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Silvery Pigeon
IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
Silvery pigeons have pale silvery grey plumage with black remiges and tail feather tips. The neck feathers may have a subtle greenish shine. They have red skin around the eyes. Females are similar but darker and less silver.
How many are alive?
1-49 mature individuals
They were believed to be extinct; however, wild individuals were rediscovered near Masokut Island in 2008. This recently rediscovered species is expected to have a small population of less than 50 mature individuals.
Where do they live?
The species occurs in coastal forests in the lowlands and hills of offshore islands and mangroves and comparable habitats below 100 m on mainland Borneo and Sumatra. Although little is known, existing information suggests that it migrates seasonally or moves across islands in response to food resources.
Silvery pigeons appear to have a minimal range, with historical records indicating that they at least historically existed and may still be found in islands off Sumatra, Indonesia, and along the west coasts of Sarawak, Malaysia, and Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Threats:
Very little research and knowledge is available about the species, but the possible threats to this species are
Poaching for the pet trade, as demonstrated by two caged birds in Hong Kong, may severely threaten wild populations.
With considerable deforestation for logging and conversion to agriculture and plantations occurring throughout the species’ range, habitat degradation is a major threat.
Although little is known about the species, it is possible that urbanization, deforestation, disturbance, hunting on tiny islands, and the introduction of mammalian predators have all contributed to general declines, as has been the case for several other diminishing Columbiformes.
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Tooth-billed Pigeon
IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
The tooth-billed pigeon is a black, medium-sized bird with reddish feet and red exposed skin around the eye. The tail, tertials, and wings coverts are reddish chestnut, while the remaining remiges are blackish.
The head and neck are greyish with a pale blue luster. It has a big, curved, and hooked bright red bill, and the lower mandible contains projections that resemble teeth.
How many are alive?
50-249 mature individuals
The population is estimated to be between 50 and 249 adult individuals, which equates to between 70 to 380 individuals overall, based on the low number of recent recordings and rarity of sightings by locals#
Where do they live?
It is found in the primary forests from sea level to 1,600 m, along forest edges, along forest roads, and occasionally in clearings where native trees persist. Local hunters claim that the Ma’ali and Maota are the species favored fruiting trees out of more than 20 types of fruiting trees used as food. It occasionally eats on the ground.
Tooth-billed pigeon is endemic to Samoa and is found on both main islands, Upolu and Savai’i.
Threats:
Natural habitat destruction from cyclones reduces forest quality, including the loss of fruiting trees, and promotes exotic plants that jeopardize native tree recovery.
Feral cats and rats may pose a severe threat, especially if their numbers expand following cyclones.
Hunting is also a threat this species faces in its habitat.
Negros Bleeding-heart
IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
It is a medium-sized pigeon with a short tail. The upper back is scaled, the head and sides to the breast are iridescent greenish-blue, and the flying feathers are brownish. The neck and chest are white and have a blood-red narrow central spot. White crescents mark the wing and chest sides.
How many are still alive?
50-249 mature individuals
It is predicted that 50 to 249 mature adults are in the population. This estimate translates to approximately overall 70-400 individuals.
Where do they live?
The Negros bleeding-heart is found mainly in primary forests at elevations up to 1,200 meters above sea level. They prefer thick canopy forests, although some reports are present from secondary habitats. The species primarily consume plant matter from the forest floor. Some prospective evidence suggests that they may sometimes consume ground invertebrates.
The islands of Negros and Panay, Philippines, are home to this rare Negros bleeding-heart pigeon
Threats:
On Negros and Panay, the primary forests have almost all been destroyed.
The remaining fragments continue to be seriously threatened by habitat degradation brought on by burning wood and charcoal, clearing land for agriculture, encroaching construction, and other human activities.
Other threats come from catching and hunting for food. They are most probably also hunted for the pet trade.
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Sulu Bleeding-heart
IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
The Sulu bleeding-heart pigeon has a medium-sized body and a short tail. Bright metallic green feathers descend from the crest and forehead to the mantle and sides of the breast. The scapular feathers are a deep chestnut tone with a luster that might seem violet, green, or lilac, depending on the light. It has a bright orange central spot on the white breast.
How many are alive?
1-49 mature individuals
Based on an analysis of local reports and the size of the remaining habitat, it is anticipated that there are only a limited number of adults in the population, probably less than 50, which is on the edge of extinction.
Where do they live?
The species can be found in closed-canopy primary and secondary forests. This species may have a preference for small islands. It may live in logged forests.
Sulu bleeding heart is endemic to the Sulu archipelago in the Philippines. Only two specimens were taken on Tawitawi in 1891, which was regarded as quite rare at that time. Unconfirmed local sources from 1995 are the only proof of its existence.
Threats:
The primary reason for this species’ loss is likely the quick cutting of Tawitawi’s remaining primary forest, which has left a severely degraded and freshly logged forest. No protected area is present in the species’ range of occurrence.
During martial law in the 1970s, hunting and trapping may have caused a significant decline in species population.
Mindoro Bleeding heart
IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
Mindoro bleeding heart is also called manuk-manuk, punay, manated, la-do, kulo-kulo by locals. It has a dark grey forehead that fades to a shimmering green on its head, nape, and hindneck. Its underbelly is cream-white from its throat to its flanks. It has a characteristic spot on the middle of its breast that resembles a vivid bleeding wound.
How many are alive?
50-249 mature individuals
According to surveys, 50-249 mature individuals were estimated to be surviving in the wild. So the total population would equate to about 70-400 individuals.
It was widespread in the 20th century, and as recently as 1954, it appeared to be prevalent locally. However, the lack of hunter reports and the fieldworkers’ low encounter rate indicate that numbers have declined significantly.
Where do they live?
Mindoro bleeding heart, primarily terrestrial pigeon, lives in lowland forests with closed canopies, favoring dry forest substrates on sloping terrain up to 750 meters. This bird prefers the dry, bamboo- and rattan-covered forest floors sometimes dotted by rocks and limestone outcrops. It has also been reported that dry riverbed ponds located on more flat forest floors with fewer rocks.
Mindoro bleeding heart pigeon is endemic to the Philippine island of Mindoro, where there have only been four confirmed reports since 1980. Four sites where they were confirmed are Puerto Galera, MUFRC Experimental Forest, Siburan, and Mt. Iglit-Baco National Park.
Threats:
Nearly the whole habitat of this species has been destroyed by lowland forest degradation. On Mindoro, just 120 km2 of the forest was left in 1988, and only 25% of it was closed-canopy. The island could lose all primary forests below 900 m at the current pace of decline in a few years.
Dynamite blasting for marble and slash and burn techniques for land conversion for agriculture pose a real threat to the habitat of the Mindoro bleeding heart.
During the rainy season, locals set traps on the ground for other species (reptiles, small mammals, ground birds), where, unfortunately, the Mindoro bleeding-heart pigeon also gets trapped.
Other threats include collecting for the pet trade and hunting for food, especially during the dry season.
