Wompoo Fruit Dove

The Wompoo Fruit Dove is a large, brightly colored fruit dove, the biggest of its kind found in Australia, combining a soft grey head and breast collar with a rich purple-magenta throat and upper breast, a yellow-green back and wings, and a yellow-striped olive belly. The overall effect is a strikingly beautiful bird that can nonetheless be surprisingly difficult to spot high in a fruiting rainforest fig, where its colors blend into dappled light and foliage.

Its name comes from its distinctive, far-carrying call, a deep, resonant "wompoo" or "wallock-a-woo" that echoes through the rainforest canopy and is often the first clue to the presence of this otherwise elusive bird.

Key field marks

• Large size, the largest fruit dove in Australia
• Grey head and hindneck
• Deep purple-magenta throat and upper breast
• Yellow-green back and wings with yellow stripes on the olive belly

Similar species

• Superb Fruit Dove is much smaller with a different color pattern, showing an orange nape and purple crown rather than an all-grey head.
• Rose-crowned Fruit Dove is also smaller, with a rose-pink crown rather than the Wompoo's grey head and magenta breast.

Habitat

Inhabits rainforest, particularly areas with fruiting fig trees, from lowland to upland forest.

Range

Found along the east coast of Australia from Cape York in far north Queensland south to central New South Wales.

Migration

Mostly sedentary, though some seasonal and altitudinal movement occurs in response to fruit availability, particularly figs.

Behavior

Spends much of its time high in the rainforest canopy feeding on fruiting trees, often remaining still and well camouflaged for long periods; usually encountered singly or in pairs.

Voice

A deep, resonant, far-carrying call often rendered as "wompoo" or "wallock-a-woo," audible over long distances through the rainforest.

Feeding

Feeds almost entirely on fruit, especially figs, swallowing them whole.

Nesting

Builds a flimsy platform nest of twigs high in a rainforest tree; lays a single white egg.