The Japanese green pigeon is a species of bird in the family Pigeon. The specific Latin name is given in honor of the German naturalist Philipp Siebold.

The Japanese green pigeon is a very cautious and little-studied bird, even in its relatively wide distribution.

Habitat of the Japanese green pigeon

The range covers the Japanese Islands, the Korean Peninsula, the Kuril Islands, South Sakhalin and Primorye. In Russia it is considered a rare species with a disjunctive, peripheral range. This is the only representative of the genus Green Pigeons in the fauna Russian Federation. Outside Russia, they nest on the islands of the Japanese archipelago from Hokkaido in the north to Ryukyu in the south, and are also found in Taiwan and along the entire southeastern coast of China. In Korea and on about. Ulleungdo is more of a migratory bird. Presumably, it nests in Kunashir and in the southern part of Sakhalin.

Appearance of Japanese green pigeon

Externally, this bird is a bit like a wood pigeon or a wood pigeon, but has denser and brighter plumage. The body length of the Japanese green pigeon can be from 25 to 35 centimeters, and it weighs about 300 grams. It has a dense build and a small head. The neck is relatively short. These birds have a slightly swollen, medium-length beak. The wings are small, rounded at the ends. They also have a short, but wide and straight tail. The plumage is quite dense and relatively soft. Their main color is yellowish-green. But even though their feathers are such a bright color, the color is not saturated throughout the whole body: the wings and tail are brighter, but the body, neck and head are duller.

Feeding of the Japanese green pigeon

The Japanese green pigeon is a herbivorous bird and its diet includes cherry and bird cherry berries. They also often like to eat fig trees and various juicy fruits. They immediately swallow food whole. They pick most of their food from trees while sitting on a branch. In this way they are similar to representatives of the parrot order.

Lifestyle of Japanese Green Pigeon

The Japanese green pigeon prefers primary undisturbed mixed and broad-leaved forests of the Far Eastern type. Suffering from logging and other anthropogenic factors. Green pigeons love forest undergrowth with cherry and bird cherry, grapes and actinidia, elderberry, honeysuckle and other plants, the fruits of which they eat. Every day it makes multi-kilometer flights between nesting, feeding and watering places.

The males are making mournful noises O-ao, A-oa, O-aoa, with emphasis on A. During the breeding season, birds consume sea ​​water and also drink water from mineral springs.

Reproduction of Japanese green pigeon

The Japanese green pigeon is a rare species, and therefore little is known about its life. Today, scientists know that Japanese green pigeons are monogamous birds. They weave their nests from thin twigs and place them in trees at a height of up to 20 meters. It is believed that partners hatch eggs in turns for 20 days. And after that, helpless, down-covered chicks are born, which will learn to fly only after five weeks. However, pairs or flocks of green pigeons are rarely seen in Russia; most often they are noticed alone.

Population status and conservation of the Japanese green pigeon

The species is included in the Red Books of the Russian Federation (2001), Primorsky Territory (2005) and Sakhalin Region (2016).

Hunting for the species is prohibited in Russia.

General characteristics and field characteristics

Wood pigeon of medium size, bright yellowish-green color, with a wedge-shaped tail. The flight is fast, straight, with frequent wing beats. Like other species of pigeons, it takes off with the noisy flapping of its wings. In flight it appears light-colored and long-tailed. If it sits motionless on tree branches, it is hardly noticeable among the green leaves. Usually it stays in the crowns of trees, less often it descends onto the branches of tall bushes. Walks on the ground little and reluctantly. Inhabits mixed and deciduous forests. “Song” - cooing: “uu-uu-uur-uurr-uuuur-ur” is performed in low tones, dullly, with a rumbling sound and ends with a short, quickly ending howl (Nechaev, 1969). Repeats several times in a row with short pauses and is heard at a distance of up to 1 km. The voice is also expressed as “oaoooh, oaoooh”, and in case of anxiety - “riu” (Yamashina, 1974). Very cautious and secretive; it is more often heard than seen. During the non-breeding period, birds usually keep in flocks.

Description

Coloring. Sexual dimorphism is manifested in the color of the plumage: males are brighter colored and slightly larger than females. The male's forehead, throat, area between the eye and the beak, crop and chest are yellow with green tint. An orange coating appears on the crop and chest. The frenulum, ear coverts, crown, nape and neck are yellowish-green. On the upper side of the neck there is a gray collar with a green tint. The back and upper tail coverts are dark green. The lesser and middle upperwing coverts are brownish-red, and the greater uppercoverts are green with wide brown and narrow light yellow edges on the outer webs of individual feathers.

A brown coating is noted on the shoulder feathers, and in some individuals on the back. The belly is white with a yellow tint. The sides of the body are gray; At the border with the abdomen, gray feathers with green tips, light yellow feathers with longitudinal green stripes, and green feathers with light yellow rims are visible. The undertail is light yellow with green bases and light tips of the feathers. The lower tail coverts are yellowish-white: the central feathers have wedge-shaped dark green stripes along the shaft, the outer feathers are green with yellowish-white tips. The length of the central pair of these feathers is equal to the length of the central tail feathers. The feathers covering the thighs are gray and green with yellowish-white tips.

The primary flight feathers are black, on the outer webs there are narrow light yellow edges, which on III–I feathers are along the entire web, on the rest - only in the upper part. The secondary ones are of different colors: VIII and IX are green, the rest are grayish-black with a green field and a light yellow border along the outer webs. The coverts of the primary are black, the coverts of the secondary are grayish-green with narrow light yellow edges. Two parallel light yellow stripes stand out on the wing: one along the outer edges of the secondaries, the other along the edges of their coverts. The undersides of the wings are dark gray; in some individuals the light gray tips of the primaries are noticeable below. The tail is wedge-shaped: the outer tail feathers are 2–3 cm shorter than the central feathers. The upper side of the central feathers is green, the rest are green with a pre-apical black field. The underside of the tail is black with gray stripes on the tops of the feathers. The legs are bright crimson, the claws are brownish. The beak is grayish-blue, its base is blue. Rainbow blue; its outer edge is pinkish.

The female is colored mainly like the male, but her head, crop and chest are predominantly green; the upper wing coverts are green rather than brown; the back is darker green; there is no orange coating on the crop and chest, and the throat is greenish-yellow, noticeably lighter than the crop and head.

Down outfit. The chick is covered with down. The color of birds in the first autumn (juvenile) plumage is similar to the color of an adult female, but all the plumage is dull and loose. Seasonal and age-related color variability has not been studied.

Structure and dimensions

Dimensions (in mm) T. s. sieboldii. Males (n = 15): wing length 183–200 (average 193 ± 1.3), tail 120–150 (average 136 ± 2.3), tarsus 22–26 (average 23.9 ± 0.3 ), beak (from the frontal plumage) 17–20 (average 181 ± 0.2); females (n = 5): wing length 180–192 (average 189 ± 2.5), tail 130–137 (average 134.4), tarsus 20–25 (average 22.8 ± 1.0), beaks 17–19 (average 17.8 ± 0.4). Weight (in g): males (n = 7) 258–359 (average 299.9 ± 1.5), females (n = 2) 266.7 and 332.0 (Kunashir and Sakhalin islands).

Shedding

The nature of molting and the sequence of changing outfits have not been studied. Birds caught on Sakhalin and Kunashir from July to September were in a state of molting: they were finishing or had already completed the renewal of their flight feathers and were intensively replacing small integumentary feathers. The primary ones molt from X to I, the secondary ones molt centripetally, from the edges to the middle. Four males (July, Kunashir Island) have new primary ones, with the exception of I, which was preserved from the previous outfit. In the male dated July 2 (Sakhalin Island), I is primarily old, II has not grown to normal, the rest are new; 1–3 are minor new, 4th are not up to standard, 5–7 are old, the rest are new. In the male dated July 29 (Moneron Island), 10 has not yet reached the norm.

The male from July 26 (Kunashir Island) finished molting his primary flight feathers, and old and new feathers were noted among the secondary ones. The autumn male was also in a state of molting (September 27, Southern Primorye), whose tassel of the first primary flight feather had barely unfolded. In the adult female (from June 29, Sakhalin Island), the primary ones are new and the renewal of the secondary ones has begun, but in the first-year female (from June 26, Sakhalin Island) the primary ones have not yet changed. The female from September 14 from Kunashir Island also shed intensively (Ostapenko et al., 1975).

All examined males and females did not shed their tails in July-September. There was a renewal of small integumentary feathers on the back, chest, sides of the body and other areas. The young bird (from November 26, Southern Primorye) was wearing fresh feathers. Another young bird (from October 20, Sakhalin Island) was from a late brood; she was finishing her molt from down to youthful attire; The flight feathers and tail feathers were of normal length, stumps and barely unfurled tassels stuck out on the head and neck among the feathers, and embryonic down remained on the forehead.

Subspecies taxonomy

Polytypic species. Variability is manifested mainly in shades of plumage color and overall size. There are four subspecies (Vaurie, 1965; Howard and Moore, 1980). T. s. flies into Russia and probably nests. sieboldii (Temminck), which is somewhat larger than other subspecies, has a wine-colored color on its back (Stepanyan, 1975).

Treron sieboldii sieboldii

Columba sieboldii Temminck, 1835, - in Temminck of Laugier,. Planches color., livr. 93, pi. 549, Japan

Japanese islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu).

Spreading

The species' range covers Southeast Asia: Japanese islands - Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu (Check-list of Japanese birds, 1974), Taiwan Island, southern and central regions of China (south of the Yangtze River), Indochina Peninsula (Vaurie, 1965; Stepashin, 1975). Flights to Sado, Oki, Tsushima, Oda-Odasawara, Iwo and other Japanese islands are known (Check-list of Japanese birds, 1974) (Fig. 26).

Figure 26.
a - nesting area. Subspecies: 1 - Treron sieboldii sieboldii, 2 - T. s. sororius, 3 - T. s. murielae, 4 - T. s. fopingensis

On the territory of Russia, the green pigeon was found: on Kunashir Island (Southern Kuril Islands) repeatedly from June to September, starting in 1962 (Nechaev, 1969; Boyko, Shcherbak, 1974; Ostapenko et al., 1975); on Sakhalin Island - on the southwestern coast of Cape Crillon in June-August 1974 (Nechaev, 1979a) and in May-August 1980–1984. (data from V.A. Nechaev), as well as on the Muravyovskaya Lowland near lake. Dobretskoye October 20, 1978 (exhibit in the Sakhalin Regional Museum of Local Lore); on Moneron Island, located near Sakhalin Island, from July 17 to July 29, 1973 (Nechaev, 1975); in the south of Primorsky Krai - from August 17 to September 27, 1972 and October 29–31, 1980 on the territory of the Lazovsky Nature Reserve (Dokuchaev, Laptev, 1974), in early July 1968 near lake. Khanka and November 26, 1972 in the Kedrovaya Pad nature reserve (Polivanova, Glushchenko, 1977), July 12, 1977 near the village. Terney (Elsukov, 1981), July 9 and 10, 1974 at the mouth of the river. Razdolnaya, and on June 25, 1979, in August 1982 and July 4–5, 1983 near the village. Ryazanovka, Khasansky district (Nazarov, Kuriny, 1981; Nazarov, 1986); in June-July 1980 on the islands of Bolshoi Pelis, Stenina and de Livrona (Rimsky-Korsakov archipelago) in Peter the Great Gulf (Nazarov, Shibaev, 1984) (Fig. 27).

Figure 27.

Migrations

In Japan, the green pigeon is a partial migrant; northern populations fly to winter in the southwestern regions of the islands of Honshu and Kyushu and further south to the islands of Tanegashima, Yakushima and Izu (Austin, Kuroda, 1953; Check-list of Japanese birds, 1974). Arrives on Hokkaido Island in early June and leaves in October (Ausin, Kuroda, 1953). During seasonal migrations, it appears on the sea coast, on plains and lowlands (Yamashina, 1974). In the subtropics and tropics it is a sedentary bird. The pigeons found in Russia are migrants from Northern Japan. The earliest sighting on Sakhalin Island was May 23, 1981 and 1984. (data from V.A. Nechaev), the latest - October 20, 1978 in Southern Sakhalin and November 26, 1972 in Southern Primorye (Polivanova, Glushchenko, 1977).

Habitat

Mountain and lowland forests. On the Northern Japanese Islands it lives in dense tall-trunked broad-leaved and mixed forests: on the island of Hokkaido at an altitude of up to 400 m, on the island of Honshu - up to 1,500 m above sea level. seas. In addition, on the island of Honshu it settles in old (hundred-year-old) mixed forests near temples (Jahn, 1942; Austin, Kuroga, 1953). On Sakhalin Island (Crillon Peninsula), birds are regularly observed in mixed (coniferous-stone birch) forests on mountain slopes with curled oak, calopanax seven-lobed, small-leaved maple, Sakhalin cherry, Ainu bird cherry and various types vines, shrubs and herbaceous plants; prefer forest areas with cherry and bird cherry (data from V. A. Nechaev). On Kunashir Island they live in coniferous-deciduous forests in the south of the island (Nechaev, 1969), in the south of Primorsky Krai - in broad-leaved and mixed forests on plains and mountain slopes, mainly near the sea coast.

Number

In Japan, according to some sources, the green pigeon is a common bird (Jahn, 1942; Yamashina, 1974), according to others (Austin, Keroda, 1953), it is relatively rare. In Russia, on the islands of Kunashir and Sakhalin, single birds and flocks of 4–6 individuals were encountered, on Moneron Island - a flock of three birds, in the Primorsky Territory - mostly single birds.

Reproduction

Daily activity, behavior

This bird is diurnal. Spends the night on tree branches. During the post-breeding period and on migrations, it most often lives in flocks. Very cautious and secretive; prefers to stay in the crowns of trees. Sometimes found on the banks of fresh and salt water bodies, from which it drinks water. The behavior has not been studied.

Nutrition

The green pigeon belongs to the group of fruit-eating pigeons. Its main food is the buds, flowers and fruits of woody plants (trees, shrubs and vines). On Sakhalin Island in June, birds ate buds and flowers of Sakhalin cherry (Cerasus sachalinensis), mixed mountain ash (Corbus commixta), Ainu bird cherry (Padus assiori), Sakhalin elderberry (Sambucus sachalinensis), curly oak (Querqus crispula), and unripe cherry fruits ; in July - flowers of Ainu bird cherry and other plants, ripe cherry fruits, unripe elderberry and bird cherry fruits. On Kunashir Island in July, birds fed on the fruits of the valley elm (Ulmus propinqua), Sakhalin cherry, Kuril cherry (Cerasus kurilensis), Siebold elderberry (Sambucus sieboldiana), flowers of the bristle-grass (Celastrus strigillosus) and cherry (Nechaev, 1969). On Moneron Island, at the end of July they ate the flowers of the forage mulberry (Morus bombycis), in the Primorsky Territory in July - the unripe fruits of the Manchurian apple tree (Malus manshurica) (Nazarov, Kuriny, 1981), in September - the fruits of the Amur grape (Vitis amurensis) ( Dokuchaev, Laptev, 1974). Birds pluck flowers and fruits from the branches of trees and bushes, and pick up fallen fruits on the ground.

Enemies, unfavorable factors

Reproductive success and causes of mortality are unclear. In Primorye, one of the enemies noted was the peregrine falcon, in whose food in June-July on the islands of Bolshoy Pelis and Stenina the remains of two pigeons were found (Nazarov, Shibaev, 1984). There have been cases of death of birds from exhaustion (Polivanova, Glushchenko, 1977; Elsukov, 1981). No noticeable changes in the abundance of the species were noted in Japan. However, its regular flights from Japan to Russia should be considered as the result of a slight increase in numbers in the 60s and 70s.

Economic importance, protection

It has no direct economic significance. Sometimes shot by hunters and poachers. As a rare species in the fauna of Russia, it deserves protection. In the Sakhalin region, according to hunting rules, shooting green pigeons is prohibited. Included in the Red Book. Protected in the Kuril Nature Reserve (Kunashir Island).

Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia

Japanese green pigeon(lat. Treron sieboldii listen)) is a species of bird in the family Pigeonidae. The specific Latin name is given in honor of the German naturalist Philipp Siebold (1796-1866).

Characteristic

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Notes

An excerpt characterizing the Japanese green pigeon

We are so accustomed to the sight of city sisars that it is not easy for us to imagine that a dove could be any other color. Of course, this does not apply to decorative breeds.

In Japan there is a bird of the pigeon family called the Japanese green pigeon. But this pigeon is not a fan of big cities, it does not beg for food from people, but lives quite solitary. This is a very cautious and timid bird, which, of course, creates obstacles for ornithologists in studying it. The nests of these birds are located in trees almost 20 meters from the ground

This bright relative of the Russian sisar can reach a length of 35 centimeters and weighs about three hundred grams. The main color of this bird is yellowish-green, but the wings and tail are brighter. Japanese green pigeons live mainly in subtropical forests. But the bird is considered little studied due to its shy nature.

The Japanese green pigeon feeds on plant foods similar to what parrots eat. The basis of its diet is berries and fruits (bird cherry, cherry, honeysuckle, fig tree fruits, etc.). Japanese green pigeons are monogamous and live in families. When there is a lack of food, they can fly long distances in flocks to find food. Among natural enemies this type predator birds– peregrine falcons.

In Russia, this bird is found in very limited habitats in the Primorsky Territory and Sakhalin and is listed in the Red Book.

Who among us does not know pigeons? Has anyone heard that there are green pigeons? It turns out that amazing birds really exist... but where?

These birds with green plumage live in southern Asia and some areas of Africa. It is almost impossible to see such a creature in the wild, and all because the bird blends in with the green foliage that surrounds it. Even if a flock of these unique birds sits on a tree, it will be difficult to distinguish.

In our country, these birds can be observed in the Primorsky Territory and nearby areas. In addition, the green dove has chosen a part of the Kuril ridge, the Kamchatka Peninsula and Sakhalin Island.

What does a bird called a green dove look like?

In principle, this bird is no different from the usual urban central part of Russia, with the exception of body coloring.

Green pigeons grow up to 30 centimeters in length, and their weight ranges from 250 to 300 grams.

The body constitution of the bird is squat. The tail is not long at all, and the legs have feathering. The wing length of this bird is about 20 - 25 centimeters.

Depending on the variety, the plumage of pigeons can be diluted with other colors. For example, there are individuals with a pink neck that stands out against the general green background of the body, and some others.

What is the green pigeon's lifestyle in nature?

Representatives of this genus can be observed in mixed and deciduous forests. They prefer trees such as bird cherry, cherry, elderberry, and grape vines, because their food is located on these trees.

They can live both on plains and in mountainous areas. Green pigeons move very quickly from branch to branch. Their entire life mainly passes in the crowns of trees, and on the ground they can only be found in search of drink.

The flight of these birds is also very dexterous and fast. Green pigeons are very maneuverable in the air.

Sometimes these birds scream loudly while flying above the ground. But their screams bear little resemblance to the sounds made by the pigeons we are used to. The voice of green pigeons is more like the croaking of a frog or the yelp of a small puppy. Sometimes these birds simply whistle, for which they are also popularly called whistling pigeons.

What do green pigeons eat?

These birds are herbivores. They feast on a variety of berries, figs, fruits and other “delicacies” of plant origin.

Breeding green pigeons

At the moment, little is known about the breeding of offspring by these birds. Perhaps it's all about their secretive lifestyle. It can be assumed that reproduction in green pigeons occurs in approximately the same way as in other brothers in the family.