Picazuro Pigeon (Patagioenas picazuro)

Identification & Behavior: ~34 cm (13.4 in). The Picazuro Pigeon has gray-purplish head, neck, and underparts. The back and wings (wing coverts) are gray finely-fringed with whitish giving a scaled effect. It has a white band along the bottom edge of the folded wing and conspicuous white fringed with black scaling on the back and sides of the lower neck. It has a reddish bare skin around the eye and bright red legs. It is similar to the Spot-winged Pigeon of the high Andes but their ranges do not overlap in Peru. The Picazuro Pigeon favors open habitats in other parts of its range. In the Amazonian lowlands of Peru, it is the only large pigeon with a distinctive broad white wing band.

Status: The Picazuro Pigeon has been recently documented in the Amazonian lowlands of Southeast Peru in river-created habitats. It also occurs in Br and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Paloma Picazuro.

Sub-species: Picazuro Pigeon (Patagioenas picazuro picazuro), Temminck (1813). E & S Brazil (from Piauí and Pernambuco W to Mato Grosso and S to Rio Grande do Sul) W to N, E & SE Bolivia (Beni, Santa Cruz, Tarija), and S to SC Argentina.

Meaning of Name: Patagioenas: Gr. Patageö= noise, noisy and Oinas= dove. picazuro: Güaraní name Pihkasú-ró sour pigeon, apparently from the taste of its flesh after the bird has eaten certain fruits.

See more of the Family Columbidae