Victoria Crowned Pigeon

Nature 4 Minutes

Strikingly beautiful and intelligent, the Victoria crowned pigeon is a fascinating ground bird to watch. It is common to see at a zoo or aviary. Although this is a gentle bird, it is not a bird for novices. Even pigeon fanciers and experienced bird owners need to ensure they have the dedicated space and time required by these majestic creatures.

Originally from New Guinea and introduced to nearby islands, the Victoria crowned pigeon has been bred in captivity for hundreds of years. They’re a common sight in the United States and the United Kingdom at zoos and aviaries, though they are somewhat rare in the pet bird trade.

This bird is the largest living pigeon and the closest remaining relative to the extinct dodo bird. It was named in honor of Queen Victoria for its flashy blue crown of intricate lace-like patterns and its regal poise.

In the tropical rainforests of New Guinea, Victoria crowned pigeons were hunted for their meat and feathers. Due to hunting and habitat destruction, the wild population had declined rapidly, endangering the species to near extinction. As a protected species, it has improved from being a “threatened” and “vulnerable” species to “near threatened.” Deforestation of its natural habitat still occurs.

Temperament

Victoria crowned pigeons are known to be intelligent and quite easy to tame. This bird is docile by nature, which is why they’re a frequent attraction at zoos. They are often left to roam the grounds freely and tend to be happiest when foraging for food on the ground and wandering around.

This bird can fly short distances but will only fly when necessary, usually when startled, in danger, or in need of a high roost in the trees for the night.

Speech and Vocalizations

The call of this pigeon is unlike breeds you may be used to. It is not a soothing, cooing pigeon. Victoria crowned pigeons let out more of a hollow “boom” sound that can be quite loud and surprising.

Victoria Crowned Pigeon Colors and Markings

A stunning bird, Victoria crowned pigeons sport powdery blue feathers on their bodies with red eyes, a dark mask, and maroon breasts. They display a lighter shade of blue on their wings and in a band on their tailfeathers.

The crest looks like a beautiful display of dark blue lace with vivid white tips. This crown makes them seem more like a peacock than a pigeon.

This bird is a monomorphic species, meaning males and females look alike. A male may be slightly larger than a female, but it’s barely noticeable. To figure out the sex of your bird, it would require a surgical sexing procedure or a genetic test.

Caring for Victoria Crowned Pigeons

Victoria crowned pigeons spend quite a bit of time on the ground and need plenty of room to run around and exercise. They need a minimum of 200 square feet of ground space in their enclosures. They also need roosts at various heights. 

These space requirements can be hard for even the most dedicated enthusiast to meet. In other words, if you can’t provide your bird with a flight the same size as the average bedroom, then you should not consider adopting a Victoria crowned pigeon.

These pigeons tend to do best as a pair in a single flight enclosure; a solo bird may become too lonely. During the breeding season, males may fight each other. The males have an elaborate courtship dance. Generally, a mating pair will only produce a maximum of three eggs each year. Both the male and female incubate the eggs, which takes around a month to hatch and raise the young squabs.

Despite their docile personality, this is not a low maintenance bird. Since they are foragers, clean the enclosure regularly, so they don’t get health issues from eating their droppings along with their food.

Keep in mind that the birds are native to a tropical climate and will do best in warm, humid regions. They cannot tolerate temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. If your region gets cold, you’ll need to figure out how to provide heat. The enclosure should also protect the birds from wind and rain.

Victoria crowned pigeons generally tolerate birds of other species quite well. It is often best when they’re the only ground bird. For example, you do not want to keep these birds with a busy flock of chickens; it will stress out the pigeons that often prefer a calm environment.

Common Health Problems

The biggest health threats for these birds are fungal infections they can get from their fecal droppings. The birds breathe in fungal spores that form on their droppings. These spores can cause potentially fatal respiratory diseases, such as histoplasmosis and candidiasis.

Diet and Nutrition

Like all pigeons, Victoria crowned pigeons feed on the ground. In the wild, their diet consists mainly of fallen fruits, seeds, grains, and small invertebrates. They’re particularly fond of figs.

Captive crowned pigeons do well on a high-quality seed and grain mix, and many keepers stick with a standard dove mix. They should also get regular servings of fresh fruits and vegetables. Offer about a 1 cup of seed mix and 1 cup of fruits and vegetables per day—adjust the daily portion according to their appetite. This species is not known for overeating. Remove any uneaten fresh food at the end of each day to prevent spoilage.

SOURCE: SPRUCEPETS

Unknown's avatar

Published by pat frederick

Published

120 thoughts on “Victoria Crowned Pigeon”

  1. Morning All!
    the new log splitter came late yesterday afternoon–what a relief!
    we thought that it might come while we were at mom’s and that would be a huge problem. the delivery box is at the bottom of the driveway and there is a lock on it, but the splitter definitely wouldn’t fit in the box! hubby was thinking of driving back home when it was delivered and then driving back down to mom’s to get me…after driving down and back this past Sunday for our daughter’s surprise party. that’s A LOT of driving!!
    anyway it’s here now!

    Liked by 1 person

  3. yesterday?

    GH17TAFKAG
    @GH17TAFKAG
    💥Trump Going to Trial💥
    🇺🇸A Message from Our President🇺🇸

    I will be attending the trial in Manhattan this morning. I greatly appreciate all of the legal professors and scholars that are saying I DID NOTHING WRONG. I can’t have a JURY and am being viciously tried under a Statute that has never been used before. The Radical Left Democrat Judge, WHO IS HIGHLY POLITICAL, serves as Judge, Jury, and everything else. America cannot let this happen. Our legal system is corrupt and broken! Everything emanates from Washington, “GET TRUMP.”

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Morning, Pat! 56 this morning, some possible rain predicted – still no sign of GT.

    EXCERPT: “Scientists who used the gene-editing technology CRISPR to create chickens resistant to avian influenza also showed how quickly a dangerous bird flu could mutate from laboratory chickens to humans, critics of a new study in the journal Nature Communications told The Defender.

    The authors of the study, led by researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, altered the genetic code of 10 chickens to make them resistant to a bird-flu virus and then exposed them to the virus. They also included 10 chickens in the study that were not genetically altered. All 10 chickens not genetically altered got sick when they were exposed to the virus. Only one of the genetically altered chickens got sick with the bird flu.

    Altering a species’ DNA “promises a new way to make permanent changes in the disease resistance of an animal,” University of Edinburgh embryologist Mike McGrew, Ph.D., an author of the study, said at an Oct. 5 news briefing announcing the peer-reviewed research. “This can be passed down through all the gene-edited animals, to all the offspring.” According to the study, “Chickens genetically resistant to avian influenza could prevent future outbreaks. … Breeding for resistance and resilience to disease has significant potential in farmed poultry,” freeing farmers from routinely having to vaccinate birds.

    But Jonathan Latham, executive director of the Bioscience Resource Project, who has a master’s degree in crop genetics and a Ph.D. in virology, told The Defender, “The experiments were ultimately a failure of ‘the operation was a success but the patient died’ variety.” When the 10 genetically altered chickens were exposed to a much higher dose of bird flu — more in line with what the chickens could be exposed to in nature or a factory farm setting — five of the 10 chickens developed the flu.

    Virus samples collected from the infected, genetically altered birds showed the virus had made several mutations that seemed to allow it to bind to the ANP32A protein to replicate in the chickens, the study reported. The virus also mutated a workaround to bind to two other related proteins for replication.

    Worse yet, according to Latham, mutations also helped the virus replicate more efficiently in human cells. While viral mutations in human cells in vitro may not occur when the virus reaches a human being, the result was not encouraging, Latham said, adding that more efficient infection in human beings would be “likely.”

    “The overarching concern about avian flu is not that chickens will die,” he said. “It is that large commercial flocks allow flu types acquired from wild birds to evolve in them, and those flu types then go on to infect and actually kill their human owners, farmworkers and potentially cause a pandemic.”

    The authors of the Nature Communications study “caused a flu to evolve that, according to their test, was more infectious in human cells,” Latham said. “They thus created what they intended to prevent.”….

    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/crispr-gene-editing-chickens-bird-flu/

    Liked by 1 person

  10. And just like that…I turn around and there’s GT on the patio looking for food! I stepped outside to get her dish from the table – she stayed near me and didn’t run away, with her quiet meows. Jake is sitting there meowing plaintively again, watching her eat. At least now I know closing the doggie door flap won’t stop her. Now to make sure others don’t follow her in….

    Liked by 1 person

    1. LOL – goodness! The hair is up all down Jake’s back as he slinks away from the door! Told ya’ – he’s a pussy for real!!!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. O.M.G!!! Holy cow! She left the food dish so I looked to see where she went, expecting her to turn towards the doggie door but she walked past it. I turned off the interior light so I could see better and, lo’ and behold, she is up in one of the patio chairs on the cushion, all nice and comfy, cleaning herself!!! That is a BIG first!!!

        Liked by 1 person

  13. TheseTruths(@thesetruths)Offline
    Wolf
    October 18, 2023 01:04

    Mel Gibson is the only one speaking out on behalf of the Armenians. Makes you wonder why everyone else remains silent.

    Mel Gibson is the only one speaking out on behalf of the Armenians. Makes you wonder why everyone else remains silent. pic.twitter.com/I2kBxKDFBz

    — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 17, 2023

    https://www.cfr.org/article/ethnic-cleansing-happening-nagorno-karabakh-how-can-world-respond

    The ethnic Armenian population of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in Azerbaijan, a largely Christian community in a predominantly Muslim nation, is experiencing ethnic cleansing at warp speed. Over the last week, almost all of the estimated 120,000 ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh have fled west to Armenia. This exodus follows clashes with the Azerbaijan army that have reportedly killed upwards of four hundred people, including some civilians. The renewed conflict demonstrates the failure of years of diplomatic efforts to prevent the persecution of ethnic Armenians, and remaining options to address the situation with the tools of international law are limited.

    More at the link.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Citizen 817
    October 18, 2023 12:29 am

    @realDonaldTrump

    11h
    The World Health Organization has become nothing more than a corrupt globalist scam paid for by the United States but OWNED and controlled by China. When the China Virus reached our shores three years ago, the World Health Organization disgracefully covered the tracks of the Chinese Communist Party every step of the way…

    Liked by 1 person

  18. Citizen 817
    October 18, 2023 12:30 am

    @realDonaldTrump

    7h
    Today we had a Total and Complete Victory against Far Left Lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, on her ridiculous ACN Class Action Suit, yet another Election Interference Case. It was ruled that there can be no Class Action, and Certification was denied!

    Liked by 1 person

  20. sunnydaze
    sunnydaze
    October 18, 2023 1:20 am

    Every State Gov. should. be doing this>>>>

    ….” On Tuesday, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) announced Chinese state-owned company Syngenta must divest Arkansas land holdings.”……..

    Liked by 1 person

    1. They absolutely should – this is something for which I will never forgive Ricketts!!! He courted them in their takeover of Smithfield, IIRC.

      Liked by 1 person

  23. Sometimes, the hubris and arrogance just rolls off of JD Rucker’s back! Good grief! Bragging about “putting in the time” and “I have a unique understanding….” Pffttt!!! And, of course his first recommended source is the Gateway Pundit, who doesn’t WANT the truth!!! Another one hiding behind his conservative creds….oh, yeah, and his faith!

    EXCERPT: “As editor of The Liberty Daily and owner of Discern Report, I spend more time sifting through headlines than 99.999% of the population. I’m sure there has to be someone out there who does absolutely nothing other than read and/or watch various news sources who might have more hours logged everyday than I do, but I definitely put in the time 365 days per year.

    My feed carries over 300 conservative news sites, blogs, and video channels that updates in near-real-time and I read the headlines of about 90% of it daily. That’s literally thousands of headlines that I read with hundreds of the stories scanned and dozens fully read or watched. I have a unique understanding of the biases, styles, and nuances of these outlets and as a result I know who to trust, depending on the topic.”

    https://jdrucker.substack.com/p/who-can-we-trust-in-the-media

    Liked by 1 person

  30. Eating another one of my lopes, green on the outside, ripe on the inside! LOL – I’ve learned a LOT this year about cantaloupe!!!

    Liked by 1 person

  31. toothpick
    October 18, 2023 8:56 am

    Washington, D.C. Black Voter Disenfranchisement
    Michigan Welfare Rights Organization v. Trump

    Click to access 852023-10-6-Reassignment-of-case.pdf

    Intro
    MWRO is the union for welfare recipients and low income people in Michigan.

    Democracy Docket announced reassignment of the case filed in 2020 via X (formerly Twitter), writing, “NEW: A lawsuit alleging that Donald Trump, his campaign and the RNC tried to disenfranchise Black voters during the 2020 election has been reassigned to Judge Tanya Chutkan, the same judge in Trump’s DC election subversion case.

    Newsweek obtained a court document Tuesday that said Chutkan, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, was reassigned the case October 6, “taking over for [President Joe] Biden appointee Judge Ana Reyes, her colleague in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.”

    Liked by 1 person

  32. GT slept until about 8:30, when she came back to eat more and drink some water. But then she couldn’t figure out how to push the flap to get out. I went out to prop it open and she got scared, running to the west end of the patio and up on the window sill, looking for a way out. So I picked up her food and propped open the flap for her. She figured it out right away, sniffed inside and immediately outside, then went on out. Flap is back down and food is back up on the table.

    Liked by 1 person

  33. M suggested that it might be time to give GT a name – as she said, it sounds like the car! LOL – what’s your opinion about Princess, since she’s so stand-offish?

    Liked by 1 person

      1. OK, M suggested Meghan (for the Marple) – I’m going to change it to MeAgain instead – same diff!!! LOL – if you say it real fast, it kind of sounds like Meghan!

        Liked by 1 person

  34. so open the house so they can get their funding rammed thru? and then still have a house fight for speaker? sounds like giving the deep state what it wants

    Liked by 1 person

    1. This was suggested as a possibility a few days ago, IIRC. And didn’t he just shut it down for 3 days – Sat, Sun and Monday? Thought I saw a Tweet to that effect…

      Liked by 1 person

  37. Arkansas pointing the way…
    entire article
    On Tuesday, the state of Arkansas ordered a Chinese-owned company to divest itself of 160 acres of agricultural land, under new laws being passed across the US restricting foreign ownership of farmland.

    Due to legislation passed by the Republican-controlled legislature and signed by Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year, Attorney General Tim Griffin said Northrup King Seed Co., a subsidiary of Syngenta Seeds, which is owned by China National Chemical Company, or ChemChina, a Chinese state-owned company, has two years to divest the property in Craighead County.

    According to ABC, 24 states now have laws restricting or prohibiting foreign ownership of farmland in response to growing concerns about investments from China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

    Under Arkansas law, if a company doesn’t divest from the land, the state can take it to court.

    Syngenta was also fined $280,000 by the state for not reporting its foreign ownership under a 2021 state law. The company has 30 days to pay the fine and the company stated that it has updated its filing with the US Department of Agriculture following the change of ownership and has also filed a copy with the state.

    Sanders said at a news conference with Griffin, “We will make sure that every company operating in Arkansas is a friend to Arkansas and good to hard-working Arkansans.”

    https://thepostmillennial.com/arkansas-forces-chinese-state-owned-company-to-give-up-american-farmland?utm_campaign=64487

    Liked by 1 person

  39. “Six French airports evacuated amid terror threat: Bomb squads were dispatched to several French airports on Wednesday after authorities received anonymous email threats of a potential terror attack”
    October 18, 2023
    editor: REMIX NEWS author: THOMAS BROOKE

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “Six airports across France were evacuated on Wednesday morning after authorities received an email tip-off about a potential terror attack. Passengers were told to leave the airports of Lille, Lyon, Nantes, Nice, Toulouse, and Beauvais, while all outbound flights were grounded and incoming passengers were made to stay on board inbound aircraft while police undertook checks.

    Bomb squads were dispatched to each airport. Officials at Lille airport received an anonymous email threat shortly after 10 a.m. on Wednesday, while a similar threat was sent to Lyon-Bron airport prompting a mass evacuation and search of the control tower and two aircraft that found nothing. It is understood that Nantes Atlantique airport was evacuated over a suspicious package alert.

    Flights remain grounded at several sites, according to the French Civil Aviation Authority, although some airports are beginning to resume operations. France was put on its highest counter-terrorism alert last week after a school teacher was stabbed to death by a Chechen Muslim who shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he rampaged through his old school, also seriously wounding another teacher and a security guard.

    The attack took place on the so-called “day of jihad” declared by the founder of the Hamas terrorist group that recently conducted terror raids on Israeli territory and murdered 1,300 Israeli civilians.”

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.