Golden Fruit Dove

BirdFiji

Jul 26

Written By Alexander Julius Jensen

Ptilinopus luteovirens

Endemic to Fiji, the golden fruit dove exhibits remarkable sexual dimorphism — the female is forest green while the male is a brilliant golden yellow. This dove lives in the canopy and is more often heard than seen, producing dog-like barking, low growling, and snoring noises.

Forests of Fiji

A map of Fiji’s many islands — Viti Levu and Vanua Levu are the two largest.

Few would call a dove or pigeon boring after laying eyes on a fruit dove. The 50 or so species of fruit dove (in the genus Ptilinopus) appear like winged works of art. Their galleries are the tropical forests of Maritime Southeast Asia, Australia, and the many islands that lay scattered throughout the Pacific. One such island, or rather, an archipelago nation comprised of over 300 islands, is Fiji, situated in the South Pacific some 2,000 km (1,200 miles) north of New Zealand. To many, the name Fiji conjures scenes of a tropical paradise with soft sand surfs, washed by gentle crystalline waves, and lined with leaning palms (or just expensive water). However, on many Fijian islands, a trek inland reveals a different kind of paradise: lush rainforests rich with life of all walks and wings. Several of the islands — Viti Levu (the largest and most populous island), Beqa, Ovalau, Gau, and Waya islands of Western Fiji — conceal golden treasures amidst their tree canopies.

You walk alone in the Fijian rainforest, far from the nearest city or town, where the trees go untouched by hand or axe — falling only to tempestuous, uprooting storms in tangled crashes that deliver sunlight to the light-starved forest floor, allowing for the race to begin anew as trees grasp out towards the sky. Most of the canopy, however, is a dense blanket of dark green, as the tallest trees greedily drink all the sunlight they can, only allowing their scraps to fall to the lower forest layers. It's as if you wander along the ocean floor, staring up at the surface, where rays of light occasionally penetrate to the depths, filtered and scattered by rippling waves, or leaves, dappling the floor at your feet — you certainly feel like you could be underwater, dripping with sweat from the heat and moisture.

This dim, humid biome is the most bountiful of any on Earth, with an unparalleled diversity of life (covering around 2% of Earth's surface, tropical rainforests host between 40% to 75% of all the planet's species). Walking through it, however, you might be doubtful. You see an occasional shadow retreating into the bushes, maybe a slither in the leaf litter, or a silhouette soaring between branches above, but this is hardly the menagerie one might imagine from our planet's richest habitat. Only once you begin to search with your ears, rather than your eyes, do you get a sense of the lives playing out around you — when it comes to the rainforest's residents, you hear them more than you see them.

Clockwise from top left; a Fijian crested igauan (*Brachylophus vitiensis*), the rainforest of Viti Levu Island, a western wattled-honeyeater (*Foulehaio procerior*), and a a Fiji parrotfinch (*Erythrura pealii*).

The daytime soundscape features a constant backdrop of screeching cicadas, like a tireless orchestra all playing the same instrument — that being the 'tymbal', a specialised organ used by several types of insects to produce noise. Bees buzz by you and beetles click in the undergrowth. A rustling in the leaf litter could be any of the endemic skinks, or maybe a gecko. In mainland rainforests, a crashing through the bushes could be forest deer, monkey, or giant rodent, but here in isolated Fiji — where the only native terrestrial mammals are bats — it's probably an invasive wild boar or maybe an Indian mongoose. Above you, branches strain and crack beneath the weight of large reptilian bodies, as Fijian iguanas and boas traverse their arboreal territories. The stars, the melodic vocalists of this rainforest symphony are the birds. The forest resonates with the joyful, raucous voices of shining-parrots and lorikeets. The songs of jungle mynas are harsh and metallic, yet still melodic. Whistles echo and bells chime as honeyeaters sing for their partners. Colourful parrotfinches cheep away and the Polynesian trillers trill. Amongst this cacophony, you might make out a few deeper calls, sounding like a barking dog that somehow managed to climb up into the canopy. You might hear sharp croaks and low growls, or even what sounds like someone snoring.

These are the calls of the golden fruit dove.

Midas’s Dove

The golden fruit dove is more often heard than seen.

Fortunately, it looks prettier than it sounds. Unfortunately, you're unlikely to see it, only hear it. The golden fruit dove is primarily arboreal, most at home in the high branches of the canopy where it deftly forages for fruits, berries, and insects — surprisingly deftly, given its plump pigeon body, even able to hang nearly upside-down to pluck fruits from the ends of thin branches.

Occasionally, it descends to the sub-canopy and lower branches while foraging, flying with rapid flaps and whistling wings from perch to perch. But you're most likely to spot this dove among the lower bushes of the rainforest, where it occasionally loiters, and where it is unobscured by tangled layers of tree branches and lianas.

The female golden fruit dove is coloured a forest-green.

The male golden fruit dove is a bird of solid gold. His filamentous feathers cover his throat, breast, and back like thick threads of gold — forming a scaled pattern as they overlap. He wears a high collar around his neck, giving him the regal air of high royalty. His head is finely feathered, with spectacles of bare green skin around his eyes whose colours seep to turn his beak a greenish-yellow. He appears as a figure moulded from gold and come to life, or a victim of Midas.

Conversely, the female golden fruit dove — for whom the name does not fit — looks like an extension of the forest itself. Her feathers are overlapping leaves and fronds. She is coloured in a gradient of greens, as if symbolising the layers of the rainforest. Her back and wings are dark like the dim understory, her head is lighter like the canopy crown, while the skin encircling her eyes and her beak are bright like the tallest emergent trees. While the male is certainly more eye-catching, bordering on garish, the female displays (or rather doesn't) a more naturalistic, almost elegant appearance, which makes her seem a part of the verdure.

Often is the bird named for the more striking sex, almost always the male.¹ Perhaps this dove's common name could reflect the duality of its sexes, both the gold-cast male and the forest-green female — the golden-green fruit dove has a nice ring and would match its specific Latin name: "luteovirens", comprised of "luteus" (meaning orange-yellow), and "virens" (meaning green).

Fijian Fruit Doves

The golden (-green) fruit dove is endemic to Fiji, meaning that it's found nowhere else in the world, but it isn't the only fruit dove on these tropical islands. An orange fruit dove female looks much like a golden female: shades of green. The male, meanwhile, looks as if a female fruit dove was held by the head and dipped in neon orange paint. The male's head is the same olive green as the female's, but his body is covered in orange hair-like feathers, with yellow wingtips poking out from beneath. The male whistling fruit dove swaps the colour palette; with a glowing yellow head separated from a mostly green body by his collar — he also has a bit of yellow fluff beneath his short tail. The female, unsurprisingly, is green.

The fruit doves of Fiji, clockwise from top left; a whistling fruit dove (*Ptilinopus layardi*), an orange fruit dove (*Ptilinopus victor*), and a many-coloured fruit dove (*Ptilinopus perousii*).

This trio of endemic Fijian fruit doves — the golden, orange, and whistling — appear like lurid recolourations of one another. Their calls, at least, are distinct. While the golden barks and snores, the orange sounds like a dripping tap or someone snapping their fingers, and the whistling sounds like a metallic whistle or sometimes a sneeze (“nyehh").

The last fruit dove of Fiji is not endemic but found on other Pacific islands such as Tonga and Samoa. This is the many-coloured fruit dove. Its plumage shares the same quilt-like, colourful patterning of several other fruit doves (such as the superb fruit dove or yellow-breasted fruit dove). Its wings and back are different shades of green while its neck and head are yellowish-white. Patches of deep purple are sewn throughout its plumage: beneath its tail, along its shoulders, and on the front of its head — the male's breast is often flecked purple too. Like the other Fijian doves, this one is a strange vocalist; producing a phrase that sounds like "let it go, let it go" or cooing in a series of descending notes akin to the sound of a marble dropped onto hard stone. But it is clearly the odd-dove-out on Fiji — a contrasting compliment to the endemic trio.

Males on the left and females on the right, from top row to bottom; indigo bunting (*Passerina cyanea*), ruby-throated hummingbird (*Archilochus colubris*), and Eurasian blackbird (*Turdus merula*).

¹ There are far too many bird species which derive their common names solely from the males' appearance (usually their breeding plumage) to list here, but I'll mention a few to illustrate the point. Much like the golden fruit dove, the female golden pheasant displays no gold. The female indigo bunting is not indigo and the female scarlet tanager isn't scarlet. Only the male ruby-throated hummingbird has a ruby throat and only the male black-chinned hummingbird has a black chin. Female blackbirds aren't even black nor are female bluebirds blue (at most, they have a bit of blue at the base of their wings and tails). The list could go on.

This naming convention is obviously useful for identification, as it describes the most conspicuous individuals of a species, who usually happen to be male. Many females of different, but closely related species often look the same while the gaudy males differ, thus allowing for a species to be properly identified. Such is the case with the golden and orange fruit doves of Fiji — the green females of both species could easily be mistaken for one another, while no one would confuse the males. Since around 90% of bird species are socially monogamous, spotting a vibrant male likely means that the more visually subdued female is close by. So the male's distinct appearance can also help to identify which species the more cryptic female belongs to.

**Where Does It Live?**

⛰️ Mature and second growth rainforest.
📍 Endemic to Fiji; on Viti Levu, Beqa, Ovalau, Gau, and Waya islands of Western Fiji.

‘Least Concern’ as of 01 October, 2016.

IUCN

Size // Small
Wingspan // N/A
Length // 20 cm (8 in)
Weight // N/A
Activity: Diurnal ☀️
Lifestyle: Social 👥
Lifespan: N/A
Diet: Omnivore
Favorite Food: Small fruits, berries, and insects 🍇
Class: Aves
Order: Columbiformes
Family: Columbidae
Genus: Ptilinopus
Species: P. luteovirens

The golden fruit dove forages for small fruits, berries, and insects among the branches of the forest canopy — hanging almost fully upside-down to pluck food from the ends of branches.

It is not a large dove, only measuring some 20 centimetres (8 inches) long.

This dove's advertising call sounds like the high-pitched barking of a dog (“wu-wu-wu-wu-wu-wu”) and is usually sung from a high perch.

This fruit dove builds a flimsy platform-nest of twigs and vines. The female lays a single white egg in this nest.

This dove's specific name, "luteovirens", is comprised of the Latin "luteus" (meaning orange-yellow), and "virens" (meaning green) — likely alluding to the male's golden plumage and the female's green.

A juvenile golden fruit dove resembles a green adult female but with more conspicuous yellow along its flight feathers.

This species is endemic to Fiji; found on Viti Levu, Beqa, Ovalau, Gau, the Waya islands of Western Fiji, and nowhere else.

It belongs to the fruit dove genus (Ptilinopus) with some 50 species found throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. It is one of four species of Fijian fruit doves — the others being the orange fruit dove, whistling fruit dove, and many-coloured fruit dove.