Doves and Pigeons (Columbidae)

15 species in Singapore.

Doves and pigeons (Columbidae) are stout-bodied birds with small heads, short necks, and slender bills, some with a fleshy patch of bare skin at the base called a cere. They occur nearly worldwide, absent only from the driest deserts and the polar regions, with the greatest diversity in South and Southeast Asia and Australasia. The family more or less divides into ground-feeding seed-eaters, which tend toward dull plumage, and tree-dwelling fruit-eaters, often brightly coloured. Both groups are strong, fast fliers, and most breed in simple stick nests, feeding their young on a milky secretion from the crop. A handful of species undertake long migrations, but most are largely sedentary.

Many of Singapore's doves and pigeons are easy to identify by size, structure and colour. The female green pigeons (Treron) are the most difficult, and they are best told apart by head colour, iris colour, and bill shape and colour.

Singapore's open-country doves, Spotted Dove, Zebra Dove, Red Collared Dove and feral Rock Dove, favour grasslands, reclaimed land and urban areas near people. The most common Treron species – Pink-necked Green Pigeon – is abundant in all habitats with trees, sometimes nesting in residential estates in small bushes and flower pots. Common Emerald Dove, the other Treron green pigeons and Jambu Fruit Dove favour forest, forest edge, and wooded parks. Pied and Green Imperial Pigeon are most often seen in parks and gardens.

Ground doves feed alone or in small groups by picking seeds off open ground, while the green pigeons are arboreal and more sociable, gathering in fruiting trees in large flocks which might have multiple species. Looking through the Pink-necked Green Pigeons on a fruiting tree may reveal Thick-billed Green Pigeons or possibly something even rarer.