In the family of the Pigeons and Doves, we have four members known as Fruit Doves. Three of these are found along the eastern coastline while a less colourful member, the Banded Fruit-Dove is only in the top end of the Northern Territory.
Two of the colourful Fruit-Doves, the Superb and the Rose-crowned love the rain-forests and similar areas like the mangroves.
The fourth member, the Wompoo, is one of the beautifully coloured members of the Pigeon family that lives in the more tropical rain forest areas along the eastern coastline from the top of Cape York and down to the New South Wales coast as well.. They usually inhabit the tree-tops where they can feed on fruit and berries.
A friend of mine who has a property at Byfield rang me from there one lunch time to tell me he had just found a Wompoo Fruit Dove sitting on a nest. It was not far from his place up in a mango tree.
This seemed to be too good an opportunity to miss so I collected my photo gear and drove there as quickly as I could. My friend met me at the gate and pointed out the tree where the Wompoo was nesting.
I saw what looked to be a clearer gap between the leaves. That meant moving further away from the nest.
Probably because of the greater distance between us, the Wompoo watched me all the time but didn’t fly away even though I was out in the open. Although I had a clear view of it, the bird must have felt quite safe where it was.
The photographs from this position including the one pictured here, were great and well worth travelling the distance to its nest.
