Black Wood Pigeon

Black Wood Pigeon (Columba janthina) is a large, dark island pigeon with glossy green and purple iridescence on the head and neck. The combination of body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provides the most useful field characters. Age, sex and season can alter its appearance, so identification should use several features rather than colour alone. This supports comparison with similar species in the field (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is associated with mature evergreen and laurel forest on East Asian islands and feeds on fruit and seeds. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds more likely to gather where food is concentrated. Japanese records place it within the country's documented avifauna as a resident, migrant, visitor or introduced bird (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Japan occurrence records).