Biology:Red-headed wood pigeon
| Columba janthina nitens | |
|---|---|
Critically Endangered (Japanese Red List)
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Columbiformes |
| Family: | Columbidae |
| Genus: | Columba |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: | C. j. nitens
|
| Trinomial name | |
| Columba janthina nitens Stejneger, 1887
| |
The red-headed wood pigeon (Columba janthina nitens) is a subspecies of black wood pigeon of the family Columbidae, identifiable by the red coloring the upper shoulder to top of head feathers.[1][failed verification] The red-headed wood pigeon is limited in its range to the Ogasawara Islands of Japan and eats primary fruit and seeds.[2] Critically endangered, it is at risk because of extrinsic feral cat predation and intrinsic lack of genetic diversity due to genetic drift because of the low population size.[3][4]
Description
The red-headed wood pigeon has an average body length of 43 cm,[5] with a large body, long neck and a small head. The body feathers are dark, black on the wings and tail and iridescent green on the chest.[6] The red-headed wood pigeon differs visually from the black wood pigeon in the red coloring of the head, face, and upper back feathers and the black beak with a white tip.
Distribution
The red-headed wood pigeon is only found on the Ogasawara Islands of Japan. Two primary distribution groups are seen with one centered on the Bonin Islands and the other on the Volcano Islands.[7] There is movement between the two island groups due to foraging for limited food resources. The general preference for The red-headed wood pigeon to consume high lipid fruits to support crop milk production is observed to varying degrees on different islands, indicating the change in foraging preferences based on availability of resources on the different islands the birds are moving among.[8]
Conservation
The red-headed wood pigeon is critically endangered according to the Japanese Red List. The red-headed wood pigeon is endemic to remote islands resulting in a restricted habitat range that leads to small population sizes that result in low genetic diversity. Because of this isolation, the red-headed wood pigeon shows significant genetic differences from the other subspecies of black wood pigeon indicating the possible separation of red-headed wood pigeon into its own species.[9]
Conservation efforts for the red-headed wood pigeon are focused on genetic diversity and habitat conservation. Habitat conservation efforts include, the eradication of the predatory wild cat population, protection of the preferable Volcano Island habitat, and the conservation of both native and non-native plant species the red-headed wood pigeon needs for its diet.[9][2] The major threat to the genetic diversity of the red-headed wood pigeon is genetic drift as a result of the small population size.[10]
The successful removal of the feral cat population, resulted in a large increase in population size from a historic low of less than 80 in 2008 to an estimated over 1000.[4][11] This was possible because the deleterious mutations that built up where removed from the population though the prosses of genetic purging, resulting in overall more fit for survival population after the genetic bottleneck.[4]
References
- ↑ "GBIF" (in en). https://www.gbif.org/.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ando, Haruko; Setsuko, Suzuki; Horikoshi, Kazuo; Suzuki, Hajime; Umehara, Shoko; Inoue-Murayama, Miho; Isagi, Yuji (October 2013). "Diet analysis by next-generation sequencing indicates the frequent consumption of introduced plants by the critically endangered red-headed wood pigeon ( C olumba janthina nitens ) in oceanic island habitats" (in en). Ecology and Evolution 3 (12): 4057–4069. doi:10.1002/ece3.773. ISSN 2045-7758. PMID 24324859.
- ↑ "State of Japan's Environment at a Glance: Extinct and Endangered Species Listed in the Red Data Book" (in en). https://www.env.go.jp/en/nature/biodiv/reddata.html.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Tsujimoto, Daichi; Takayanagi, Mayo; Ishii, Jyunko; Sakashita, Ryouko; Horikoshi, Kazuo; Suzuki, Hajime; Isagi, Yuji (2025-07-15). "Genetic purging in an island-endemic pigeon recovering from the brink of extinction" (in en). Communications Biology 8 (1): 1051. doi:10.1038/s42003-025-08476-z. ISSN 2399-3642. PMID 40670606.
- ↑ "What do the extinct Ogasawara variegated wood pigeon and the endangered red-headed black wood pigeon eat?" (in en). https://vocal.media/petlife/what-do-the-extinct-ogasawara-variegated-wood-pigeon-and-the-endangered-red-headed-black-wood-pigeon-eat.
- ↑ "BIR055-00229" (in en-US). https://www.joelsartore.com/bir055-00229/.
- ↑ Ando, Haruko; Sasaki, Tetsuro; Horikoshi, Kazuo; Suzuki, Hajime; Chiba, Hayato; Yamasaki, Michimasa; Isagi, Yuji (April 2017). "Wide-ranging Movement and Foraging Strategy of the Critically Endangered Red-headed Wood Pigeon ( Columba janthina nitens ): Findings from a Remote Uninhabited Island" (in en). Pacific Science 71 (2): 161–170. doi:10.2984/71.2.5. ISSN 0030-8870. http://www.bioone.org/doi/10.2984/71.2.5.
- ↑ Ando, Haruko; Setsuko, Suzuki; Horikoshi, Kazuo; Suzuki, Hajime; Umehara, Shoko; Yamasaki, Michimasa; Hanya, Goro; Inoue-Murayama, Miho et al. (April 2016). Gamauf, Anita. ed. "Seasonal and inter-island variation in the foraging strategy of the critically endangered Red-headed Wood Pigeon Columba janthina nitens in disturbed island habitats derived from high-throughput sequencing" (in en). Ibis 158 (2): 291–304. doi:10.1111/ibi.12345. ISSN 0019-1019. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.12345.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Ando, Haruko; Ogawa, Hiroko; Kaneko, Shingo; Takano, Hajime; Seki, Shin-Ichi; Suzuki, Hajime; Horikoshi, Kazuo; Isagi, Yuji (January 2014). Fuchs, Jerome. ed. "Genetic structure of the critically endangered Red-headed Wood Pigeon Columba janthina nitens and its implications for the management of threatened island populations" (in en). Ibis 156 (1): 153–164. doi:10.1111/ibi.12120. ISSN 0019-1019. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.12120.
- ↑ Ando, Haruko; Kaneko, Shingo; Suzuki, Hajime; Horikoshi, Kazuo; Takano, Hajime; Ogawa, Hiroko; Isagi, Yuji (December 2011). "Genetic Diversity of the Japanese Wood Pigeon, Columba janthina , Endemic to Islands of East Asia, Estimated by Newly Developed Microsatellite Markers" (in en). Zoological Science 28 (12): 891–896. doi:10.2108/zsj.28.891. ISSN 0289-0003. PMID 22132786. http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.2108/zsj.28.891.
- ↑ Graham, Daniel (2025-08-14). "131 feral cats removed from remote Japanese islands – then something exceptional happens" (in en). https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/birds/red-headed-wood-pigeon-japan.
Wikidata ☰ Q27609058 entry
 |  |
