Macropygia phasianella

Brown Cuckoo-dove at Nightcap, NSW

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Identification history

Macropygia phasianella	11 Jan 2025	Liam.m
Macropygia phasianella	6 Jan 2025	Watermelontree
Spilopelia chinensis	6 Jan 2025	CarbonAI
Macropygia phasianella	6 Jan 2025	Watermelontree

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User's notes

A large brown pigeon often found in rainforests and tall eucalypt forests of the east coast. This particular bird is seen feeding on the red fruits of the pothos vine (Pothos longipes). Along with other fruit-eating pigeons, this species is an important vector of plant seeds, helping to spread both native and weed species thought the region.

5 comments

Watermelontree wrote:

6 Jan 2025

This is a definite brown cuckoo-dove. A comment that this could be a spotted dove is erroneous. There were at least 6 brown cuckoo-doves here (Protesters Falls) on the morning, all close at hand and calling. There can be no mistaking this species for any other in Australia.

Watermelontree wrote:

6 Jan 2025

Watermelontree wrote:

6 Jan 2025

I find this site somewhat infuriating. I have repeatedly typed in brown cuckoo-dove and clicked the box listing its scientific name to no avail. The first time this happened and I was unaware that this had happened it was listed as unknown. Then someone suggested spotted dove (never found inside this rainforest, only on cleared land and seldom in this neighbourhood) and that has been placed as the appellation, erroneously. So there are significant flaws in this website that endanger its credibility: it can be user unfriendly (or maybe I am flawed), it does not allow for accurate identification of species not in its database (such as Melomys cervinipes) or perhaps does not accept synonyms, and now I find the spell checker to be American, not recognising English or Australian spelling. Please fix these serious problems to prevent apoplexy and restore the site's reputation.

Watermelontree wrote:

6 Jan 2025

Great! Now it is back to unidentified again since the erroneous spotted dove ID has been given equal credibility. Sorry to be crabby, but gee whiz!

Liam.m wrote:

11 Jan 2025

Hi @Watermelontree, the suggestion of Spotted Dove was made by an AI moderator which is still very much in its trial stages (especially when it comes to birds). It does not endanger the credibility of the site in any way, shape or form, as the sighting can only be confirmed by moderators like myself. As for the difficulty you have encountered adding a new species, you should always be able to suggest species that are not already in the database, which will then be approved and added by either a moderator, or one of the admins.

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Location information

Sighting information

5 Abundance
2 Jan 2025 08:25 AM Recorded on
Watermelontree Recorded by
Collections
Watermelontree NatureMapr New South Wales North Coast Latest Pigeons and Doves Birds

Species information

Macropygia phasianella Scientific name
Brown Cuckoo-dove Common name
Not Sensitive
Local native
Non-invasive or negligible
Up to 711m Recorded at altitude
Machine learning
External link More information

Record quality

Images or audio
More than one media file
Verified by an expert moderator
Nearby sighting(s) of same species
GPS evidence of location
Description
Additional attributes